Odhrán Kelly: Five defendants, facing charges in relation to Lurgan murder, to face crown court trial in Belfast, Craigavon court hears
Five people facing charges relating to the murder of 23-year-old Odhrán Kelly are to have the cases against them heard at Belfast Crown Court.
The body of Mr Kelly was found beside a burning vehicle in the early hours of December 3 last year. Police believe he was brutally murdered in nearby flats earlier that morning.
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The 23-year-old nursing assistant’s mother watched proceedings at Craigavon Magistrates Court on Friday morning via a video link while other members of the family attended the court itself.
A total of five people have been charged in relation to a number of offences relating to Mr Kelly’s murder. All of them appeared either in the dock or via video link from prison for a Preliminary Enquiry.
Shane Harte (32), of Garland Avenue, and Gary Damien Scullion (32), of Edward Street, and Andrea Catherine Stevenson (43), also of Edward Street, all in Lurgan, are all charged with murder. Harte and Scullion were put in separate rooms at Maghaberry Prison and attended via a sightlink. Stevenson attended via video link from Hydebank Prison.
Stephanie McClelland (36) and Harte’s girlfriend Crystal Angela Redden (30) both appeared in the dock.
McClelland, of Shan Slieve in Lurgan, faces a single charge of assisting an offender by assisting in ‘the removal and destruction of Odhrán Kelly’s body’, while Redden, of Gort Mhaoilir, Raheen, Athenry, Co Galway, is accused of perverting justice in that in on December 7 last year she ‘made and signed a false statement of evidence to police investigating the murder’.
Each of the accused confirmed they were aware of the charges against them.
A prosecutor said there was a prima facie case against the defendants, which was conceded by their lawyers and barristers.
All five declined to comment on the charges or call evidence to the court on their own behalf.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan said there was a prima facie case to answer and the defendants were all remanded to appear before Belfast Crown Court on a date yet to be fixed.
Stevenson, Harte and Scullion were remanded back into custody. McClelland and Redden were released on continuing bail.