Son accused of killing dad’s girlfriend appears in court

Pictured: Jayne Toal Reat and daughter Charlotte 

A 19-year-old man accused of killing his father’s girlfriend as she desperately tried to protect her daughter in stabbing attack has appeared in court.

Nathan Ward was led away to the cells following the brief hearing at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court this morning.

Jayne Toal Reat died on Christmas Day after an attack at her home in Lisburn, Ireland.

The teenager is also accused of attempting to murder Jayne’s daughter Charlotte, 21, and his father, who is understood to have turned 50.  

Her daughter had to be physically restrained in the courtroom today as she lept forward towards the dock shouting ‘It’s not fair, it’s not fair’.

With a stitched wound over her right eye, Miss Reat wept as she was held back and comforted by friends and relatives, telling her ‘it’s not worth it’.

A man in the packed public gallery also had to be restrained by uniform police and court security staff.

Ward, who appeared in the dock with both arms in plaster, held aloft by blue sponge slings, was charged with the murder of Jayne Toal Reat on December 25 this year and the attempted murders of her daughter 21-year-old Charlotte Reat and his own father Joseph Tweedie on the same date.

Jayne Toal Reat, 43, a nurse at Craigavon Area Hospital, died after an incident at a house in Mornington, Lisburn, on December 25.

It is understood that police and ambulance crews were called to the scene at Ward’s home on Mornington Lane in Lisburn shortly after 6am on Christmas Day.

In court on Friday Detective Inspector Copeland said she believed she could connect Ward to the offences and as defence barrister Joel Lindsay had no application for bail, District Judge Rosie Watters remanded the alleged killer into custody to appear again at Lisburn Court on 8 January via videolink.  

Nathan Ward (pictured above as a child in 2008) appeared before magistrates today accused of murdering his father's girlfriend  

Nathan Ward (pictured above as a child in 2008) appeared before magistrates today accused of murdering his father’s girlfriend  

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