Ballykeel killing: Fiancée says victim ‘was a tough man – but soft with me and the kids’

The victim of the fatal assault was named late on Wednesday night by police as Donald Fraser-Rennie, 33.

The News Letter has also learned that he was a father of five, originally from Stoke-on-Trent in the north of England.

Newspaper reports from that region reveal that he had previously served time in jail.

In 2014, aged 27, he got a four-year sentence for burgling the home of a 100-year-old woman (taking her hearing aid among other things), according to the news site Rochdale Online.

The same report also says he headbutted two police officers and stole the phone of his partner’s sister, which he then sold on.

He had been caught after police turned up to a property where loud music was playing, the paper added.

His name appears in other court reports in different publications since then, but for more minor offences than those listed above.

Police say he suffered a “sustained” attack in a flat in the Ballykeel 1 estate some time before 1am on Wednesday. At time of writing, two suspects (aged 29 and 33) are in custody.

His fiancée Mary Cotton, also of Stoke-on-Trent but now living in Downpatrick, acknowledged that he had run-ins with the law in the past, adding “he didn’t deserve what he got”.

“He was the love of my life, a loving father,” she told the News Letter, adding that he had two daughters and three sons.

His children are sons Jay, Kaiden, and Leon, and daughters Skye and Lyla-Hazel.

The eldest is Jay (17), the youngest Lyla-Hazel (almost 11 months old).

“We were engaged. He’s my childhood sweetheart since we were nine years’ old,” said Mary.

“He was a tough fella but soft with me and his kids.

“I loved him. He loved his children with all his heart.”

She added that whoever killed him should be locked up “for life for taking him away from us”.

Mary said he had “wanted his own place” separate from her, but they were still very much together.

“I’m literally looking after his kids with not knowing what happened to my partner, their dad,” she said, adding that Lyla-Hazel is going to have her first birthday without her father present.

“When he’s not with me, he sort of goes on self-destruct. He has to be with me and his kids.

“He’s a fantastic father. I could not ever fault that man. I spent a lot of years with him.

“He didn’t deserve this. He did not deserve this. They took a loving man away from their kids.”

She will tell the children their father is “in heaven”.

The post-mortem means that they do not know about any funeral arrangements yet.

It is not the only killing to have occurred in the Ballykeel housing complex in recent months.

In an unrelated case in June, 31-year-old Jason Lee Martin was stabbed to death in the Ballykeel 2 estate just to the east of the Fraser-Rennie killing.

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