NI: Police name party murder prime suspect

Police today named their prime suspect in a murder hunt after a partygoer was shot dead in a toilet.

Detectives said they wanted to question William Moore, also known as “Billy the Boxer”, about the murder in Bangor, Co Down in the early hours of Sunday.

Richard Hamill, a 28-year-old bachelor, was shot in an upstairs toilet as revellers partied downstairs.

Moore, 34, is described as being around 5ft 7in tall and stocky, with short dark hair and, currently, a broken nose.

Police said Moore could be armed and dangerous and warned the public not to go near him.

It is understood the man who shot Mr Hamill had been at the party in the house at St Gallen Court for some time when he asked a fellow partygoer to run him across town to the Bloomfield area.

The man returned a short time later and when Mr Hamill went to the upstairs toilet, he followed him and shot him twice in the head before fleeing.

The wanted man is thought to originate from Belfast but to have been living in the Bloomfield area of Bangor.

Detecting Chief Inspector Roy McComb said a motive had yet to be established.

He appealed to anyone at the party who had not already spoken to police to do so.

Police appear to have ruled out a connection to the ongoing loyalist feud. It is believed the suspect has loyalist paramilitary links.

Meanwhile, the mayor of North Down, Alan Graham, said the root of growing gun crime lay with the paramilitaries.

“I would see the terrorist organisations providing an infrastructure for violence and for crime,” he said.

Police needed to mount a campaign to “call in the illegal guns”, he added.