Tragic motorcyclist Matthew Stuart ‘died doing what he loved’

Police said Matthew Stuart, 36, who was originally from the Ballynahinch area, died following a one vehicle road traffic collision on the Spa Road, Ballynahinch on Thursday afternoon.

Matthew’s brother Richard posted to Facebook yesterday: “I lost my brother today. He was on his motorbike in the sunshine, doing what he loved, something went wrong and now he’s in heaven. Standing in the sun with you today just didn’t seem real. You are so loved. We’ll be with you again.”

PSNI Inspector Brian Mills said: “At around 1.10pm, it was reported a motorcyclist left the road and tragically lost his life at the scene.

“I would appeal to anyone who was in the area and captured the incident on their dash cam to contact police on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference number 990 16/04/20.”

It is understood Matthew had got engaged in October.

Peter Weir, DUP MLA for Strangford, said: “I send my sincere condolences to all of Matthew’s family and friends. I know that this will be especially difficult given the current restrictions on attendance at funerals.”

Local councillor Uel Mackin said: “It’s an unbelievable tragedy at such a time as this. You can’t get the degree of community support you would normally get or even family support for that matter.”