Policeman Link To Ballyclare Murder

The PSNI has refused to comment on a report that the man arrested by detectives investigating the murder of a woman found strangled in Ballyclare, Co Antrim, may be a retired police officer.

The tragic death of Pauline Haveron - whose body was found in her home at Huntingdale Green on Sunday - led to the 55-year-old man from the Greenisland area being arrested.

While the PSNI at first denied that anyone had been detained - until it was confirmed around teatime on Tuesday - local reports were already indicating as early as 11am that morning that a man was being questioned in connection with the shock killing.

The PSNI only later said that the man had been detained in the Antrim area on Tuesday afternoon.

The man being questioned is said to be an ex-police officer who served in the formerly high profile Castlereagh barracks, in east Belfast.

The murder victim, Mrs Haveron, 53, was a well-known and well-liked member of the community in Ballyclare having moved there from the Greenisland area on separation from her husband.

Local DUP politician, Alderman Nigel Hamilton, (pictured) who lives in Ballyclare, said it was a very sad affair.

"This is very tragic," the former Chairman of Newtownabbey District Policing Partnership commented, noting that it was a "very serious and shocking incident".

The details of the killing were only released on Tuesday after a post mortem examination and consultations with the victim's family.

Detectives from the PSNI's Serious Crime Branch launched the enquiry and are keen to speak to anyone who was in the Doagh Road and Huntingdale areas between 10pm on Saturday and 1am on Sunday.

It is understood the victim - a mother-of-four - was a former nurse and had been living in the Huntingdale area of the Co Antrim town for the last five years.

She leaves a grown-up family of four, one of whom, her 18-year-old son, also lives in the Ballyclare house.

(BMcC/GK)