Teenager appears in court over Christmas murder of Lisburn woman

Paul Higgins

There were emotional scenes in court today when a teenager appeared accused of stabbing a nurse to death on Christmas Day. 

As 19-year-old Nathan Ward was being led away to the cells following the brief hearing at Craigavon Magistrates Court, Charlotte Reat, whose mother Ward is alleged to have murdered, had to be physically restrained as she lept forward towards the dock shouting “it’s not fair, it’s not fair.”

With a stitched wound over her right eye, Miss Reat wept as she was held back and comforted by friends and relatives, telling her “its not worth it.”

A man in the packed public gallery also had to be restrained by uniform police and court security staff. 

Ward (19), who appeared in the dock with both arms in plaster, held aloft by blue sponge slings, was charged with the murder of Jayne Toal Reat on 25 December this year and the attempted murders of her daughter 21-year-old Charlotte Reat and his own father Joseph Tweedie on the same date. 

Jayne Toal Reat, 43, a nurse at Craigavon Area Hospital, died after an incident at a house in Mornington, Lisburn, on 25 December.

It is understood that police and ambulance crews were called to the scene at Ward’s home on Mornington Lane in Lisburn shortly after 6am on Christmas Day. 

On her Facebook page, her 21-year-old daughter Charlotte posted that she was stabbed twice in the head but that her Mummy “died saving me.”

“Today will be a day i will never forget as my mum was murdered infront of my eyes and then later died in my arms. i can still feel her in my arms and hear her screams of pain and see the panic on her face.

“My mum died saving me, i was stabbed twice in the head once in my face and once to the back of my neck.”

In court today, Detective Inspector Copeland said she believed she could connect Ward to the offences and as defence barrister Joel Lindsay had no application for bail,   District Judge Rosie Watters remanded the alleged killer into custody to appear again at Lisburn Court on 8 January via videolink.