Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Teen denies Jason murder
Accused remanded in custody after brief arraignment hearing
A TEENAGER yesterday formally denied murdering Jason Martin last year.
Jordan Bradley Jake Mcclintock, 18 appeared at Belfast Crown Court from Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre via videolink for his brief arraignment hearing.
When the charge was put to him by the court clerk that he murdered Mr Martin on Saturday, June 27, 2020, Mcclintock replied: “Not guilty.”
Defence counsel Barra Mcgrory QC confirmed to Mr Justice
O’hara that Mcclintock, of Orkney Drive, Ballymena, was due to see a consultant psychiatrist on March 23.
He added that the defence would then consider the report to determine “what line of defence may be available”.
The case was listed for review on April 28 this year.
Mr Martin was found stabbed to death at a house in Ballymena’s Orkney Drive.
No date for trial was set and Mcclintock was remanded back into custody.
AROUND ten dogs a day are being stolen in the UK, leaving their families devastated.
Animal charities say the lockdown has prompted the worst year ever for dog thefts after huge demand for pets sent puppy prices soaring to £4,000.
Missing pet website Doglost has reported a 170% increase in the number of dogs missing across the UK since the start of the pandemic.
And dog experts fear owners are now so afraid of their dogs being taken, they have started arming themselves.
Debbie Matthews, from Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance, said: “When lockdown happened, everyone wanted a puppy so that put prices up.
“At the start, people had their names down for a £1,000 puppy but they were being gazumped by someone offering £2,500.
“Before lockdown, about six dogs a day were stolen in the UK. We estimate that’s now about ten dogs a day.
“It is the biggest crime during Covid but many people are still unaware.”
Debbie, who is Sir Bruce Forsyth’s daughter, said dog theft was “a criminal’s dream job”. “It’s seen as a low risk and high reward,” she said.
“We need to make dog theft a specific criminal offence because currently, it is treated in the same bracket as a mobile phone being stolen or a wheelbarrow.”
Recently, dog thieves have been dressing up as RSPCA inspectors to con their victims and there have been some horrific attempts to steal pets.
Last Monday, a woman in Sheffield was dragged out of her car by her hair as thieves tried to take her Lhasa Apso.
And earlier this week in the US, Lady Gaga’s dog-walker was shot in the chest four times by a thief who escaped with the pop star’s two French bulldogs.
A “devastated” pet owner in London is also pleading for the return of her pet after carjackers stole her dog walker’s van in New Barnet, North London on February 18.
Two of the dogs inside were later found dumped in Kent but Nala, a oneyear-old Maltipoo, is still missing.
Her owner, Marina Pettigrew, has launched a nationwide appeal in a bid to get her pup home.
She said the dog walker had got out of the vehicle to drop one of the dogs home when the thieves “jumped in her van and drove off with Nala and two others”. Marina’s niece, Melina Georgiou, inset, said: “Nala is our family dog. We are grieving and it’s an emotional roller coaster.
“It will traumatise us for ever but it’s worse for her. The thought she thinks we’ve abandoned her is horrendous.” Melina said the family bought Nala for £1,400 but have seen similar dogs being sold online for £4,000 – and feared the price rise was fuelling the problem. Justine Quirk, from Doglost, said she now felt “scared” to walk her dogs and told how she worried that “someone is going to get seriously hurt”.
She said: “When you look on social media, people are already arming themselves. But you will end up getting in more trouble than the person who stole your dog.”
Justine also urged pet owners to be vigilant at all times and warned that the most common place for a dog to be stolen is from the back garden of your home.
Aiden Mchugh sorts out supplies
FOR those sleeping rough on the cold, often wet, wintry and hard streets of Belfast a hot homecooked meal is “a lifeline”.
Likewise for families in towns and cities across Northern Ireland who have experienced an ever-deepening hunger as the pandemic gripped.
Children lost their school meals and parents struggle to make ends meet as jobs go down the pan and new opportunities dried up.
But there are charities out there, helping those most in need to see that someone cares that they get enough to eat at least.
Belfast’s Welcome Organisation has been helping the city’s rough sleepers for the past 17 years.
And spokesperson Kieran Hughes says “food is a very big part of that”, adding: “Since the start of lockdown we have been preparing and delivering 120 meals every day.”
Around 20% of what they provide to people with nowhere to call home comes from a charity called Fareshare, which in January alone distributed 38 tonnes of food to charities across Northern Ireland. That’s enough to provide 90,216 meals to those who need them most.
For the Welcome Organisation, Kieran says: “It’s really a lifeline. We couldn’t deliver the level of service we do without that support.”
Before coronavirus, he says the Welcome Organisation was feeding between 50 to 80 people a day at its Townsend Street drop-in hub.
In the past year however, that demand has roughly doubled and they now deliver 120 hot meals through outreach because of restrictions.
Kieran said: “Since the lockdown the drop-in centre has become a mobile service.
“We continue to prepare and deliver food from the centre – bringing it out to people who
Since the lockdown the drop-in centre has become mobile KIERAN HUGHES YESTERDAY
are homeless and who have been in temporary or emergency accommodation.
“We have been preparing and delivering 120 meals every day. “We can contact Fareshare if we are in need. A big chunk of the food we get is from Fareshare and we couldn’t really deliver the level of food service we do without that support. If we are preparing 120 meals every day and 70 food parcels every week and they contribute around 15-20 of our food – that would be about 20 people a day.
“That could be 20 or 30 homeless people who would not have a decent cooked meal without the support of Fareshare.
“If there were other charities out there who need support for people in poverty I would recommend them getting in contact with Fareshare to see if they can help.”
Fareshare, which delivers unwanted supermarket food and donations from its Mallusk centre, serves a range of frontline charities such as homeless shelters, community centres, schools, domestic violence refuges and foodbanks and says 90% of the charities it serves believe demand will remain at crisis levels.
They say the top three reasons for people accessing Fareshare food are job loss, debt and mental heath and since the pandemic hit, it has been widely reported that all three have spiralled even further.
Gail Redmond, founder of charity Via Wings in Dromore, Co Down, says they are “aiming to break the cycle of poverty” with help from Fareshare.
HOMELESS THROUGH COVID We’re able to ensure all kids are getting fresh fruit and a substantial snack GAIL REDMOND VIA WINGS FOUNDER, YESTERDAY
She added: “For us, the hand that reaches out with the bag of food is the hand that says we care.
“It is a step into the family unit that allows us to journey alongside each person striving to eradicate poverty and ensure positive life changes for disadvantaged people.”
Via Wings has been working with Fareshare for over four years to provide nutritious food to the people of Dromore and is currently serving 122 families plus a number of elderly people.
Gail said: “Fareshare helps us provide nutritious healthy food to those in need in the community. Working in partnership with Fareshare, food otherwise destined for landfill is repurposed and available in our town.”
Nutritious food is especially important for growing children, whom Via Wings works with in their after school programme Mini Wings.
Gail said: “We’re able to make sure all our kids are getting fresh fruit and a substantial snack.
“Parents are welcome to avail of the fresh food from Fareshare in our Archway, which helps us to combat malnutrition, a very significant problem for children in this country.”
You can play a part in tackling food poverty and helping support vital places like The Welcome Organisation and Via Wings through a new fundraising initiative from Barclays and Fareshare.
For every £1 donated, Barclays will donate £2, up to a total of £1m, until February 28.
To help feed someone this winter, contribute via Barclays by going to fareshare.org.uk/barclays or texting GIVE 5, GIVE 10 or GIVE 20 to 70630. T&CS apply.