Man held over murder outside pub released
A MAN arrested in connection with the murder of a young father has been released.
Paul McCready died in hospital after he was attacked on Donegall Street in Belfast city centre early on Sunday.
Police say that the 31-year-old, who had two children aged under 10 with his partner, was involved in an altercation inside the Northern Whig pub in Belfast city centre at around 12.50am. It spilled on to the street and it is understood that Mr McCready, from north Belfast, hit his head on the pavement.
The 30-year-old man who was arrested at the scene and questioned by police has been released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service.
The murder victim’s partner Ruth Patterson paid a heartfelt tribute to her “rock”, who she described as her “best friend in the whole world”.
The pair had been together for over 10 years.
In a Facebook post she said they were “broken” and that she wanted to “wake up from this nightmare”.
On Monday the PSNI appealed for information on Mr McCready’s murder and warned that “one punch can kill”.
However, Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes did not confirm that Mr McCready had died due to a one punch attack.
He said that it was “too early to say for certain” how long the altercation had lasted beforehand.
He added: “We would just like to remind people that yes, it’s fine to go and have a nice night out, but as we see here an altercation can very, very quickly lead to someone losing their life.
“And we have seen in the past that one punch can in fact kill someone.
“So we’d just like to remind people when they are on a night out to stay safe and be careful.”