Police granted extra time to question Montserrat Martorell murder suspect
Police have been granted an additional 18 hours to question a suspect in their investigation into the murder of Montserrat Martorell.
The 65-year-old was found in a burning flat in a house at Harvey Street in Londonderry in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Ms Martorell, who had been living in Derry, sustained multiple injuries in what the police described as an horrific and sustained attack. The injuries were so extensive that initially the police were unable to identify the victim, whose family live in Spain.
Police arrested a man on Monday.
In a closed court hearing in Derry magistrates' court attended only by a judge, two court clerks and a member of the Press, the suspect appeared on a video link from the Musgrave PSNI custody suite.Also in the suite were the suspect's solicitor Keith Kyle as well as six police officers.Prior to the closed court hearing, Deputy District Judge Philip Mateer KC ordered that nothing that could identify the suspect should be made public.Moving the detention application a detective inspector told Mr Mateer "we are investigating the murder of Montserrat Martorell at 10 Harvey Street in Londonderry"."Our investigations include witness evidence, forensic evidence, CCTV evidence and mobile phone evidence.
"The CCTV evidence shows the movements of a man. The forensic evidence from the scene is being examined as are the results of the post mortem examination and continuing mobile phone examinations."We are awaiting the results of the forensic examinations later this morning and the further detention is necessary until the forensic results and other witness statements have been received,", he said.The Deputy District Judge said based on the police application he believed "there are reasonable grounds for the application" which he granted for a further 18 hours, effective from 10am on Wednesday.
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