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The partner of a 34-year-old woman found dead in her home in east Belfast has been remanded in custody accused of her murder.
Kathryn Parton, known as Kat, was found dead with head injuries in the bedroom of her home on Madrid Street on May 15th.
Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard police believe she may have been fatally assaulted on May 9th. Ms Parton’s father was said to have found her on May 15th after not hearing from his daughter in a number of days and raised the alarm.
On Monday, Jamie Love (23), of Madrid Street in east Belfast, appeared in court where he was charged with the murder of Ms Parton on a date between May 9th and May 15th with the aggravating factor of domestic abuse.
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His mother Suzanne Love (43), of Isoline Street, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, assisting offenders and aiding and abetting breach of bail.
Meanwhile, Reece Oliver (22), of Castleton Avenue, was also charged with assisting offenders and aiding and abetting breach of bail.
All three appeared in the dock at Belfast Magistrates’ Court and indicated they understood the charges that were put to them. A detective inspector said she believed she could connect the accused to the charges.
No bail application was made on behalf of Mr Love, and he is due to appear next before court via video link on June 17th.
Bail applications were made on behalf of Ms Love and Mr Oliver.
The detective told the court that Ms Parton was found lying beside the bed of her bedroom with head injuries and blood visible. She said there were signs of a disturbance with a television broken on the floor and brackets still hanging on the wall.
“Police immediately treated this as a suspicious death and set up a scene,” she said. “We were informed that Jamie Love was Kathryn’s partner and he would reside on and off at Kathryn’s address.”
The detective said CCTV and witness evidence led police to believe Ms Parton had been assaulted in her home on May 9th.
A postmortem examination was not able to establish when exactly Ms Parton had died from her injuries, but police believe the cause of death to be from haemorrhaging.
The detective said Ms Parton was last seen alive on CCTV earlier that day with Mr Love.
There were shouts from the public gallery in court as the three were led from the dock. - PA