‘While no amount of jail time will ever bring our dad back – it’s the start of justice’

‘While no amount of jail time will ever bring our dad back – it’s the start of justice’

28 June 2023

THE daughter of a murdered Saintfield man, whose body was dumped in a lake, has said her life will never be the same again.

William ‘Pat’ McCormick’s daughter, Morgan, said she had been “stripped” of her father.

David Gill will spend at least 16 years in jail for the murder of Mr McCormick four years ago.

Speaking outside Laganside Courthouse in Belfast last Thursday, Miss McCormick said: “We, as a family are relieved to have reached this stage and we remain forever grateful to the police service and to the courts.

“While no amount of jail time will ever bring our dad back, it’s the start of justice for me and my brothers and sister, my mum and my dad’s family and friends.

“We leave here today with only memories of our dad, who has been taken from us. However, those memories are filled with love and happiness, and they’re memories that we’ll hold on to forever.

Thirty year-old Gill, of no fixed abode, subjected Mr McCormick, a 55 year-old father-of-four, to what was described as a “brutal and sustained assault” at a flat in Castle Street, Comber on May 30, 2019.

After the fatal beating he placed Mr McCormick’s remains in a wheelie bin which he then dumped in a lake.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Scoffield said the deceased was “no physical match” for Gill who was “twice his size”.

He also spoke of the “gruesome and degrading” way Gill treated Mr McCormick’s remains in the aftermath of the murder, which, he said, caused further anguish to the victim’s family.

The court heard that Mr McCormick was having an affair with Gill’s fiancée, Lesley Ann Dodds – and that he was lured to Dodds flat where he was beaten and left for dead by Gill, who had been laying in wait for him.

Despite not present when the fatal attack occurred, Dodds (25) helped to lure McCormick to her flat via text and Facebook messenger messages.

Dodds, of Queen Victoria Gardens, Belfast, admitted a charge of manslaughter and was handed a five-and-a-half year sentence, which was divided equally between prison and licence.

The judge said he accepted she was aware Gill was going to attack Mr McCormick but “she did not realise things would go as far as they did”.

Three other defendants were also sentenced on charges of withholding information about the murder.

David Gill’s brother, William Gill (43), of Terrace View, Waringstown, received a call from his brother on May 31, 2019. He travelled to Comber that day and spent several hours in his brother’s company before returning home.

Jonathon Richard Leslie Montgomery (24), of Castle Espie Road, Comber, was called by David Gill in the early hours of May 31. His garden was used to burn contents that were removed from the wheelie bin into which Mr McCormick was placed.

Andrew Leslie (24), of Mourne 

Crescent, Moneyrea is a nephew of David Gill. He was house-sitting at the property in Ballygowan where Mr McCormick’s body was dumped in the lake.

William Gill was handed a one-year sentence suspended for two years, whilst both Montgomery and Leslie were handed 15-month sentences, which were also suspended for two years.

Addressing the trio, Mr Justice Scoffield told them they were free to go but added: “Your convictions are themselves a stain on your character for your involvement in this gruesome and sorry affair.”

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.”

Speaking after the sentencing, Mr Harbinson continued: “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 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.

He added: “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.”