Inquest into laundrette killer will be heard by jury
AN inquest into the death of a man serving a life sentence for gunning down his ex-partner in a laundrette will be heard by a jury, a coroner has said.
Convicted killer Fred McClenaghan died in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast after taking ill in Magilligan Prison in October 2018.
McClenaghan had been jailed for 13 years for shooting Marion Millican, his former girlfriend, at point blank range after entering the Portstewart laundrette where she had worked on March 11, 2011.
The 57-year-old had initially claimed that the killing of Mrs Millican was an accident committed while he botched his own suicide.
The Co Londonderry murderer was twice convicted and jailed for life for the shooting before having the verdicts overturned on appeal.
However, in September 2017, he finally admitted that he murdered Mrs Millican and was handed a life sentence.
The murder trial had heard McClenaghan’s relationship with Mrs Millican — a 51-yearold mother-of-four — had been one which had been categorised by “violence”.
It was revealed that at the time of her murder, Mrs Millican — who had separated with McClenaghan in December 2010 — was in the process of reconciling with her husband.
At a preliminary inquest hearing in Laganside House in Belfast yesterday, coroner Patrick McGurgan revealed that due to the nature of this case, he was obliged to summon a jury.
“The law mandates that I have to have an inquest in relation to a death in the prison system, and I have to sit with a jury,” he explained.
Coroners in UK jurisdictions have a legal obligation to call a jury for inquests where a death has occurred in a prison or at a place of ‘custody’. In these instances, jurors are required to determine cause of death.
At the time of McClenaghan’s death, the Northern Ireland Prison Service confirmed that a 57-year-old man had died in custody, revealing the PSNI, coroner and Prisoner Ombudsman had all been informed.
Mr McGurgan also heard that between “12 to 14 witnesses” will be called to the inquest, which is expected to last over the course of a week.
The coroner’s legal counsel stressed yesterday that the witness list was currently at a “draft stage”, adding: “As such, it is a bit early to propose the running order.”
The hearing heard that medical experts — one a pathologist with the Belfast Trust — and members of the prison service are expected to be among those called to attend.
After receiving updates on the legal preparations for the inquest, Mr McGurgan provisionally scheduled the full inquest, which will be held in Belfast, for late summer.
“Subject to witnesses’ availability, I am setting the inquest for the week starting August 24, into early September,” he said.
Another preliminary hearing will be heard in March.