Police investigate double murder in Northern Ireland
Man and woman found shot in the head by son at their home in Craigavon, as detectives look at possible links to drug gangs
One of the victims of a double murder in Northern Ireland had been charged with the killing of a teenager ten years ago.
He was named locally as Hugh McGeough who was found dead in his home with partner Jacqueline McCartney in Craigavon, County Armagh on Monday evening.
Detectives are now working on a number of theories in relation to the fatal shooting including a possible link to drug gangs in the north Armagh area. Both victims had sustained gunshot wounds to the head and their bodies were discovered by the couple’s son.
McGeough had been charged over the killing of Peter McNally in the Westacres estate in Craigavon in October 2001.
McGeough and another local man later admitted wounding the teenager, who was shot dead by two masked gunmen as he slept.
Six years later in November 2007 a Craigavon drug dealer with links to loyalist paramilitaries was accused of threatening to kill McGeough and a number of McGeough’s associates in Legahory in a row over weapons.
The man was later jailed for assaulting an associate of McGeough and possessing a baton.
There was a heavy police presence in the area on Monday night, with one report suggesting a number of young men were “patrolling” around the police cordon.
The local PSNI station is only around 200 yards from the scene of the double murder. The Craigavon and Lurgan area is a known stronghold for the Continuity IRA but there is also a significant number of people involved in non-paramilitary gangs.
Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Democratic Unionists all condemned those behind the killing and called for local people to co-operate with the police murder inquiry. A local independent councillor Kieran Corr said had spoken to members of the murdered woman’s family and said they had been “devastated” over the killings.
