Second man is jailed for life for murder of Caron

3 June 2015

A SECOND man has been jailed for life for the murder of a Drumaness mother-of-six and her friend in Belfast in 2013.

Ciaran Nugent (33) dramatically changed his plea to guilty yesterday morning just before his trial was due to get underway for the murder of Caron Smith.

Last week Shaun Patrick Joseph Hegarty (34) was also jailed for life after admitting killing Ms. Smith and her friend, Finbar McGrillen, in an apartment in the Ravenhill area.

Nugent, who is formerly from the Simon Community on the Falls Road in Belfast consistently denied involvement in the double murder and the Crown was due to open the case against him yesterday morning.

However, after the close of normal court business on Monday, Nugent’s legal team asked that he be re-arraigned for the murders of the two friends.

Ms Smith and Mr McGrillen were found beaten to death in the living room of Mr McGrillen’s flat at Ravenhill Court in east Belfast on December 13, 2013 after the alarm was raised by a paperboy.

Last week 34-year old Hegarty, who is formerly of Grainne House in the New Lodge area of Belfast, admitted murdering both his ex-partner Ms Smyth and Mr McGrillen.

Co-accused Nugent, who like Hegarty initially denied the murders, was due to stand trial - but after he changed his pleas to guilty, he was handed a life sentence by Mr Justice Weir.

The minimum sentence that both men will have to serve before they will be considered eligible for release from prison will be set at a tariff hearing. Pre-sentence reports on both men have been ordered, and the pair are both currently on remand.

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