´óÏó´«Ã½

A 32-year-old man has been jailed for 18 years for the 2019 murder of County Down man Paul Smyth.

James Andrew Thomas McVeigh, with an address at Maghaberry, shot Mr Smyth, 50, in the chest with a sawn-off shotgun.

Mr Smyth was killed as he sat in the living room of his Coulson Avenue home in Lisburn.

McVeigh appeared before Belfast Crown Court via videolink at the prison on Monday.

Described by the prosecution as "vulnerable," Mr Smyth lived alone and rarely left his home, where he was a small-scale drug dealer.

On 21 June 2019, a friend who had been trying to contact him called at his home and discovered his body on the settee.

A post mortem examination concluded Mr Smyth's death was due to a shotgun wound to the chest fired "no more than a few feet away".

Hours after the murder, McVeigh was seen on CCTV paying for sportswear with cash which the prosecution said he stole from Mr Smyth.

McVeigh was told he would serve a minimum of 18 years before he would be considered eligible for release by the parole commissioners.

McVeigh was also told that "if and when" he is released from jail, he will be subject to recall to prison if he breaches any terms of his licence.

He was also sentenced for possessing the weapon used to kill Mr Smyth, and for possessing the same firearm in suspicious circumstances after a second gun attack at a house in Lisburn.

Three other men were also sentenced for offences linked to Mr Smyth's murder, and for the second shooting at a house in Mill Street on 23 June 2019.

A couple was woken from sleep by noises outside their window and when the man who lived in the house spoke to two men outside his home, a shot was fired at the bedroom window, which smashed the glass.

The couple's nine-year old son was sleeping at the time and they subsequently moved house.

James Holmes, of Lawnmount Crescent in Lisburn, admitted two counts of attempting to murder the couple in their Mill Street home, and of possessing the sawn-off shotgun.

The 35-year old was handed an extended custodial sentence totalling 16 years.

This consists of 13 years in prison, followed by an extended three years on licence, which was imposed to protect the public from serious harm.

James Robert Stewart, also with an address at Maghaberry, admitted two firearms offences.

The 32-year old pleaded guilty to possessing firearms with intent, and in suspicious circumstances.

He was handed a 10-year sentence divided equally between prison and licence.

A fourth man, Ryan Mark Megarry, Salia Avenue in Carrickfergus, was sentenced on a charge of encouraging or assisting offenders and believing that burglary of theft would occur.

The 39-year-old visited Mr Smyth's home before his death where he bought drugs, and on 18 June 2019 he pointed out his house to McVeigh.

The judge handed Megarry an 18-month-sentence, which was divided between nine months in prison followed by nine months on licence.

He said that while he accepted Megarry did not know McVeigh was going to kill Mr Smyth, in pointing out the house he "initiated a serious of events which resulted in the murder of a vulnerable man in his own home in the early hours of the morning".

The judge said that after reading victim impact statements from Mr Smyth's sister, nephew and cousin, it was clear his death has had an "enduring and debilitating effect" on his family.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detectives said that forensic evidence connected the murder of Paul Smyth and the subsequent attempted murder.

"It's worryingly clear that we could easily have been dealing with more than one fatality," said Det Insp Ian Davis.

"My thoughts are, first and foremost, with Mr Smyth's family," he said.

"Today's sentencing will, of course, never take away their pain, and I can only hope that it helps to bring some degree of closure," he added.