Woman hospitalised after Larne stabbing horror named

An official source named the woman as Fiona Magowan, in her 30s, and as of 9pm last night she was in a critical condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

Shock and disbelief rippled through the quiet rural community yesterday after a toddler died in the incident.

A baby was also seriously injured, but the Belfast health trust gave no update on the baby’s condition last night.

Some neighbours said the woman is a nurse who recently moved to the area.

The PSNI said: “Police can confirm that an investigation has commenced into the circumstances surrounding the death of a young child in the Larne area today.

“A woman in her 30s and a baby are currently receiving hospital treatment for injuries. The investigation is at an early stage and police are currently not looking for anyone else in connection with the death.”

The horror unfolded to the south of Magheramorne, a hamlet just inland from Larne Lough.

The location of the house itself is quite remote, down a small country lane called Bankhall Road.

The News Letter spent a number of hours in the area yesterday, and the word repeated over and over again on each doorstep was “shock”.

Few residents wanted to be named, and none of them said they knew the family.

One woman in her 70s, who had lived in the area for 40-or-so years, believes the occupants – a man, a woman, and two children – had moved in around last summer.

“She would’ve been out with the baby in the pram, and the other one with her,” she said. “They kept themselves to themselves.”

There are no shops in Magheramorne, and one of the few landmarks in the area is an Orange hall – LOL 291 – which stands at the end of Bankhall Road.

Gillian Long, 39, lives nearby, and was in “total shock and disbelief” upon hearing the news.

“You just don’t think it’s going to happen on your doorstep – especially in the countryside,” she said.

Lifelong resident Sam McKeen, a 67-year-old retired farmer, said they are not used to seeing the police.

He said: “It’s wild. You might’ve got break-ins years ago, but not this. That’s desperate.”

Another man living nearby, said he would walk his dogs past the house where the incident occurred.

“You only see things like this on the TV,” he said.

“It’s a quiet area. I’ve been here 13 years and you never hear a peep – never any problems around here.”

Dr Cecil Grant, the minister covering Magheramorne Presbyterian Church (the only church in Magheramorne), called it a “deeply sad” event.

“It’s a dreadful tragedy – whatever the circumstances turn out to be,” he said.

One neighbour said both the air ambulance and a police helicopter had attended the scence.

Mark McKinty, an ex-Ulster Unionist councillor who lives about five houses down along the same lane, said that emergency services began descending upon the area at around 10.30am or so, but that it was early afternoon by the time the enormity of the tragedy began becoming apparent.

“We’re obviously very shocked; it’s so close to home, and because of the ages of the children,” he said.

“Obviously at this time everything has been turned upside down for the family.”

A lifelong resident of the area, who like many others, would not give her name, said she saw an ambulance and two green paramedic cars heading to the scene.

They said: “It’s bad enough when adults are involved, but when it’s children ...”

It is not the only tragedy in living memory to have been visited upon the tiny community.

In 1991, 26-year-old father-of-two Edward Spence, an RUC man, was shot dead by the IRA in south Belfast.

He was from Magheramorne.