Turkish man handed life sentence for murder of boxer Eamonn Magee

Following a 25-minute delay in proceedings, defence QC Arthur Harvey asked for father of three, Orhan Koca, a 34-year-old Turkish national, to be rearraigned for the May 30 stabbing in 2015.

Trial judge, Mr Justice Treacy agreed, and also for solicitor Jarlath Fields, to be in the dock with the former barman, and would-be barber, of no fixed abode, as the murder charge was put to him.

After his guilty plea, a suited Koca, the former partner of Mr Magee’s girlfriend, Courtney Ward, was told by Mr Justice Treacy, that “in light of the plea of guilty to murder the court must impose the only sentence permitted by law, and that is life imprisonment”.

The judge however, said that a later tariff hearing, to be held in early May, will determine how long Koca must serve of the life term before he can even be considered for release by the Parole Comissioners.

While this was all going on, just yards behind Koca, in a packed public gallery of family and friends, sat Eamonn jr’s mother, Mary, and his father, Eamonn Snr, a former WBU Welterweight champion, and a weeping Ms Ward.

No details of what had been described as “an unprovoked and vicious attack,” were given in court during the short hearing. However, an earlier unsuccessful High Court bail hearing was told that in the weeks prior to the stabbing Koca had been stalking Ms Ward and warning her to keep away from Eamonn jr.

Mr Magee, an university engineering student who had also decided to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a professional boxer, was found in a pool of blood and bleeding heavily from stab wounds outside Ms Ward Summerhill Park, Twinbrook home in the early hours of that May 30.

The earlier court was also told that he had left the house by the back door shortly after he and Ms Ward had ordered a pizza. She then heard screaming, and ran outside to find Mr Magee lying in the road, with two men standing over him trying to help him.

Koca, who had worked as a barman and also helped out in a Turkish barbers, was remanded back into custody. In the days and weeks following his arrest both the bar and barbers came under attack.

Beckett’s Bar, on the Stewartstown Road in west Belfast, suffered an arson attack, while Mo’s barbers in Mount Eagle Square, Dunmurray, where Koca’s had wanted “to learn the job”, was twice targetted, the second of which extensively damaged the shop after it was ram-raided with a blue van.