Men plead not guilty over fatal crush outside disco

The owner of a Cookstown hotel and a member of security staff have pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of three teenagers outside a St Patrick’s Day disco.

Lauren Bullock, 17, Morgan Barnard, 17, and 16-year-old Connor Currie, died in a crush in 2019.

They were among hundreds of people queuing to enter the Greenvale Hotel.

Michael McElhatton, 58, of Rock Road Moneymore and 47-year-old Seamus Mitchell, of Mullan Road, Coagh, are jointly charged with their unlawful killing.

They are also accused of health and safety offences, which both deny.

As each charge was put to them in the dock, they responded “not guilty” to each in turn.

The public gallery was full of the victims’ families and friends.

The judge, Madame Justice McBride, addressed them directly. She explained it was her role to try and get the case brought to trial as soon as possible.

She said: “I appreciate this is very distressing, this has been going on for a long, long time. We now have a target date set… there may be reasons why that date is not achieved.”

But she said she will endeavour to “robustly” manage the case and have regular reviews.

The trial is expected to last three months and has been given a start date of the 5 of October 2026.

The next review is listed for January.