Detectives investigating the murder of Brian McIhagga have renewed their appeal for information on the first anniversary of his death.

42-year-old Mr McIlhagga was beaten and shot by a group of masked men who dragged him from a house in Riverview Park just before 10.30pm on 5 January last year. A 33-year-old woman who lived in the house was also assaulted by the gang and four children in the property were traumatised.

Brian was shot in both legs outside the house. Tragically, he died at the scene. The attackers are believed to have made off along a walk way running along Riverview Park in the direction of Ballymoney train station.

Brian was a father of five from Ballymena and worked as a plasterer. He was a friend of the woman who lived in the house and had been a visitor in the months leading up to the attack.

As part of the overall campaign to remind people of the anniversary and appeal for information, police deployed a trailer around various parts of Ballymoney today displaying the main appeal points. As well, detectives from Serious Crime Branch today conducted a leaflet drop in the area around Riverview Park and other relevant parts of the County Antrim town. A number of pedestrian and vehicle checkpoints were also planned at certain points during the evening.

The officer leading the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Harvey, said it had been a challenging 12 months: "Our thoughts today are foremost with Brian’s family, his five children, his parents and friends. We are also mindful of the four children in the Riverview Park house last year and their ordeal.

"I would ask people to think about the level of violence used in Brian's murder: three young children all under the age of 13 were upstairs in the house; there was a 13 year old downstairs in the living room when four individuals came into the house, masked and armed. They came in through the front door and Brian was viciously and brutally assaulted in the kitchen. The injuries sustained in that initial attack would themselves have been life-changing. They then removed him from the house and shot him in both knees with a shotgun. 

"The level of violence and brutality in this attack far exceeds anything I've experienced in 29 years of police service. One would have to ask why such a level of brutality was used. There was certainly paramilitary involvement in this attack but another line of enquiry is that there may well have been some sort of personal grudge as well."

(MH/LM)