Caoimhe Morgan’s killer sentenced to 17 years

A court has heard how a child was found beside the body of his murdered mother.

The details emerged as a man was told he must spend 17 years in prison for the murder of his partner.

Taylor George McIlvenna murdered Caoimhe Morgan, 30, at her home at Harcourt Drive in the Oldpark area of north Belfast in December 2021.

At the sentencing hearing at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice McFarland outlined how the victim’s body was discovered.

He said Ms Morgan’s mother went to the house to check on her daughter.

While there, the victim’s eldest old son cautioned his grandmother not to go into an upstairs bedroom.

He told her his mother was there “in a bad way – all beat and covered in blood”.

When the grandmother entered the room, she found her daughter lying on the floor.

One of the victim’s youngest sons was lying beside his mother touching her and repeating: “Mum, Mum, mum.”

The judge noted that by leaving the victim in the house and not calling for assistance, the killer exposed her children to “their mother’s dead body and the blood-splattered scene in the home”.

Mr Justice McFarland said the killer had “a significant criminal record”.

McIlvenna, from Highvale Gardens in Belfast, pleaded guilty to murder earlier this year before his trial was due to begin.

The 33-year-old is originally from Greyabbey Road in Ballywalter, County Down.