Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LIFE IN JAIL FOR KILLING
Father of one, 20, admits murdering man in driveway
A FATHER of one was given a life sentence yesterday after he admitted beating a 24-year-old man to death outside a house.
Rhys Magee appeared at Belfast Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to murdering Richard Miskelly.
Despite the best efforts of emergency services who were called to the scene, Mr Miskelly died outside a house on the Bangor Road, Newtownards, Co Down, in the early hours of February 26 last year.
Magee, from Carrowdore Road in Newtownards, carried out the attack after consuming alcohol and ketamine.
After ordering Mr Miskelly to leave the house, the defendant followed him down the driveway and subjected him to two separate attacks.
He initially denied a charge of murder and was due to stand trial next week.
However, his barrister Martin O’rourke asked he be re-arraigned, and after speaking to confirm his name, Magee replied “guilty” when the charge of murder was put to him again.
The 20-year-old was also charged with two counts of perverting the course of justice in the aftermath of the fatal beating.
It was the Crown’s case Magee initially claimed he had just arrived at the scene in a taxi and came across Mr Miskelly lying on the ground. He also told his friend: “You came home an hour before me and you didn’t see anything.”
However, Crown barrister Ciaran Murphy QC said that as these two charges were subsumed within the murder, he asked that they be “left on the book” and not proceeded with.
After Magee admitted the murder charge, a mandatory life sentence was imposed by Mr Justice Colton. The judge then set a tariff hearing for February 23, when the minimum term he will spend in jail before he is eligible to be considered for release will be determined.
It also emerged during the hearing that victim impact statements will be sought ahead of the tariff hearing, along with pre-sentence reports compiled on Magee.
After Mr Justice Colton handed Magee a life sentence, he was led from the dock of the court and into custody in handcuffs by prison staff, just yards from where Mr Miskelly’s family and friends sat in the public gallery.