Preliminary enquiry date for Dromore murder accused

The court was told that a date for his Preliminary Enquiry has been set for November 13.

Ross is accused of the murders of local women Margaret Weise and Michelle Bickerstaff.

At an earlier appearance in June, the court heard that a third count of the murder of Elizabeth (Lily) McKee had not been formally put to Ross.

The court heard that to date two charges have been put to him and during the interim period he was interviewed about a third victim.

At the time, both prosecution and defence agreed that the third charge would be formally put to Ross during the commital. On Thursday, defence Barrister Justin Byrne said the reason for the delay in fixing a date was the significant number of bad character and hearsay applications that his team was having to respond to.

He said a solicitor has been visiting Ross in person, but prison visits were limited to an hour and a half which was causing a delay..