Teen jailed for 15 years for beating girl to death

A teenager who brutally murdered a 16-year-old girl was jailed for a minimum of 15 years today.

Thomas Purcell, 18, from Windsor Road, Belfast, admitted battering Megan McAlorum to death with a log in a forest near the city after they had sex in the early hours of Easter Sunday in April 2004.

The grim details of the murder were recounted as Purcell sat with his head bowed in Belfast Crown Court last Friday. He was sentenced today by Mr Justice McLaughlin.