Police brand murder of William 'Pat' McCormick as 'planned and cowardly'
A PSNI detective said her thoughts were with the family of Pat McCormick after five people were sentenced at Belfast Crown Court for offences arising from his murder in 2019.
David Gill, 30, of no fixed abode has been sentenced at Belfast Crown Court for the murder of father-of-four Pat McCormick, 55, in Co Down in 2019.
Mr McCormick was lured to a flat in Comber on the evening of May 30 2019, where he believed he was going to meet Gill's fiancee Lesley Ann Dodds, who he had had a brief relationship with.
Mr McCormick had received messages from Dodds' Facebook, saying she had left Gill and asking him to come to her flat.
Instead, when Mr McCormick arrived, only Gill was at the flat.
Judge Mr Justice Scoffield said Mr McCormick had been the victim of a "brutal and sustained assault".
Mr McCormick's body was discovered six weeks later in a lake in Co Down secured in a bin with straps and weighed down with concrete blocks.
A post-mortem examination showed he had suffered multiple rib fractures.
Dodds, 25, from Queen Victoria Gardens in Belfast, was sentenced to five and a half years after admitting manslaughter, with half to be served in custody.
The judge said he had no doubt she had played her part in luring Mr McCormick to the flat.
Three other men who had admitted withholding information in relation to Mr McCormick's killing, were sentenced.
William Gill, 43, from Terrace View in Waringstown, Andrew Leslie, 24, from Mourne Crescent in Moneyrea and Jonathon Richard Leslie Montgomery, 24, from Castle Espie Road in Comber, were all given suspended sentences.
Detective Inspector Jennifer Rea said: "Pat was a father of four children. He was a husband, a son, a brother and an uncle.
"Those weeks of waiting, wondering and hoping were a torturous and prolonged nightmare for a loving family.
"Of course, their sadness doesn't end today. It's over four years on now and their heartache understandably remains."
Ms Rea continued: "David Gill and Lesley Ann Dodds had initially denied any involvement in Pat's disappearance and murder.
"The reality is that both played a part in luring Pat to the home of Lesley Ann Dodds.
"However, instead of meeting Ms Dodds as expected, David Gill was lying in wait to carry out this brutal attack.
"Today, thanks to our dedicated team and working in partnership with our colleagues in the Public Prosecution Service, the defendants have been held accountable for their actions. Actions that were planned, cowardly and irreversible.
"My thoughts are first and foremost with Pat's family and loved ones."
PPS Senior Public Prosecutor Keith Harbinson said: “This was a brutal and callous attack against a defenceless man that shocked the community. It has left Mr McCormick’s family, including his four children, grieving.
“On May 30, 2019, Mr McCormick received messages from Dodds' Facebook account, saying she had left Gill and asking him to come to her flat in Comber. It was the last time Mr McCormick was seen alive. Dodds herself was not at the flat where Gill fatally attacked Mr McCormick.
“Mr McCormick’s family waited for news for almost six weeks until divers found his body during police searches in a lake in Ballygowan on July 9. A post-mortem examination showed that the cause of death was the multiple rib fractures he had suffered.
“The next day, Gill was seen on CCTV footage coming and going from the flat, and he accepted that he later disposed of Mr McCormick’s body in the lake.
“The team from the PPS’s Serious Crime Unit worked closely with the Police Service of Northern Ireland from an early stage of their investigation into Mr McCormick’s disappearance and murder to bring a robust prosecution case including forensic, CCTV and witness evidence, and phone records. This resulted in the guilty pleas, sparing Mr McCormick’s family the ordeal of a trial.
“No outcome can change the loss Mr McCormick’s family have suffered. However, we hope that the conclusion of these proceedings gives them some measure of comfort.”
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