Registered sex offender, 39, stands accused of murdering 'lover' in Portrush

Grieving relatives of an alleged murder victim looked on as his lover and fellow homeless man appeared in court accused of the killing. Appearing at Coleraine Magistrates Court on Thursday, sitting in Ballymena, 39-year-old registered sex offender Jason Robert Murray said while he understood the single charge against him, he told the court “I disagree with it.” Murray, of no fixed abode, is accused of the murder of Paul Rowlands on 18 July this year and the court heard the men had been in a relationship, living side by side in tents on the East Strand, when there was a fight and Murray left the 46-year-old father-of-five lying to die in the street. Giving evidence during a contested bail application, Det. Const. McLaughlin said he believed he could connect Murray to the charge and that police were objecting to bail because as a “homeless male who is alcohol dependent,” he poses a risk of further offences, fleeing and interfering with local witnesses. The detective described how ambulance staff contacted police in the early hours of Monday after Mr Rowlands, who is originally from the Cambridge area, was found injured in Bath Terrace in Portrush. “Paramedics performed CPR but life was pronounced extinct,” said the officer adding that Mr Rowlands was found to have sustained “a laceration to his left temple above his eye and to the back of his head.” Enquiries were conducted, with witness accounts and CCTV leading cops to declare Murray “as a suspect” and he was arrested at 6:36pm in Monday evening. “He was noted to be under the influence and a further search found a flick knife that he was arrested for,” the detective told the court that during questioning, Murray admitted they had been fighting but he put it down to a “lover’s tiff.” Murray told cops that afterwards, he went back to his tent fully expecting Mr Rowlands to turn up and even though he didn’t, “he wasn’t concerned” as that was not unusual so he went about his usual routine of drinking and fishing. Later that day, Murray went to the Atlantic bar to play pool and the court heard how his opponent heard Murray say under his breath that “I’m a hitman - I have just killed someone.” DC McLaughlin said while Murray had suggested he could live with his sister in Portstewart, he revealed that amongst the defendants 72 convictions was an offence of gross indecency with a child so that address would not be suitable, submitting that if freed, “there’s a concern that he would reoffend and fail to surrender.” Under cross examination from defence counsel Eoghan Devlin, the officer agreed that Murray had not left Portrush in the hours between the body being discovered and his arrest. He also agreed that despite the flick knife being found, the preliminary findings of the pathology report suggest that “it’s not a stabbing” but the officer conceded that he had no time scale for the full autopsy report. With the officer appearing at court by videolink from Coleraine custody suite, proceedings were interrupted by a female screaming and banging in the background, so apologising to all concerned, Dep. District Judge Laura Levers adjourned the case to Friday morning.