22/08/2008

Police Seek Help Over Death Probes

Police are appealing for information after a man's body was found in a flat in Larne.

The gruesome discovery was made on Wednesday afternoon where the body is believed to have lain there for more than a month.

Police said they are investigating the circumstances of his death and that a post mortem was still to be fully completed.

A local Councillor Jack McKee, of the Traditional Unionist Voice, said that any suggestion that a body should lie for so long was "absolutely shocking".

"That somebody would not be found would send shudders up your spine. To think that you could be so unimportant and lie for a long time without anybody missing you - in this day and age it is unbelievable. It proves that all of us should pay more attention to our neighbours and be a better neighbour ourselves," said Mr McKee.

Meanwhile, the PSNI are also seeking assistance in a renewed probe into the brutal murder of a man hacked to death two years have appealed for fresh information.

The victim, Mark Christie, 36, was chased through the Kilcooley Estate in Bangor, Co Down, by a gang of six men two years ago today.

The mob is said to have used a machete and a screwdriver to inflict what police called "horrific - and fatal -injuries".

He was caught at Owenroe Drive where he suffered the brutal beating and later died.

The week before the attack, Mr Christie had been given a suspended jail sentence for an assault in east Belfast.

He was said to be a cocaine addict and heavy drinker, the court was told.

A detective at the time said: "Whatever Mark's background, he didn't deserve to be hacked to death in the street."

Police have not ruled out the possibility loyalist paramilitaries were behind the murder.

The death shocked the local community, but despite 68 police raids and nine arrests since 2006, no-one has been charged.

Detective Chief Inspector Glenn Wright said today: "The people who killed Mark murdered him for their own selfish reasons and not for the greater good of the people of Kilcooley or the North Down area.

"I would ask anyone who knows anything about what happened in Owenroe Drive two years ago to come forward."

(BMcC)

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