Gardaí have thanked the public for their assistance.

Police said they were attending the scene at a house at William Court in Bellaghy, near Magherafelt, Derry.

It is believed the dead girl was 18 years old and celebrated her birthday just last week.

Her older sister, aged in her early 20s, lived at the rented house, in a recently built development at the back of the established housing estate.

Locals said the seriously injured woman is a mother of two young children.

One man, believed to be in his 20s, has been arrested.

He has been taken to the Serious Crime Suite at Antrim police station. Caoimhe Scullion, Sinn Féin councillor on Magherafelt District Council who lives in Bellaghy, said the tight-knit village had been plunged into shock over the gun attack.

“Everybody is in complete shock,” she said.

“We hear these stories happening everywhere else, but you never think it will happen on your doorstep.”

Ms Scullion said everybody knows everybody else in the small village.

Ian Milne, also a Sinn Féin councillor who lives Bellaghy, said the dead girl had her 18th birthday last week.

“The area is in total shock,” he said.

“Nobody can understand why this has happened. Everyone is very raw.”

Mr Milne added: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family. We hope and pray the girl that is injured will make a recovery.”

There was heavy security as Paul John Duffy, 47, arrived in the courtroom to face the charge. He was also accused of conspiracy to murder, collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists, planning acts of terrorism and conspiring to cause an explosion.

Damien Duffy, 42, and Shane Duffy, 41, face the same charges but not directing terrorism.

It followed a major police and security services operation.

The three men were remanded in custody at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court by district judge Amanda Henderson.

A detective sergeant said he believed he could connect the accused to the charges, some of which took place between November 2009 and the present time.

Crowds of family and supporters shouted encouragement as the accused, dressed in jeans and casual tops, were led away.

Officers clad in riot gear lined the packed courtroom and police Land Rovers were stationed outside the courthouse in the centre of Lisburn.

The charges follow a police arrest operation at the suspects’ homes in Lurgan, Co Armagh, part of a wider probe into alleged dissident republican activity.

Paul Duffy is from Ailsbury Gardens in the town, Damien Duffy is from Campbell Walk and Shane Duffy is from Kilwilkie Road.

The drugs were discovered as part of a routine search, when authorities stopped and searched the luggage of a Pakistani national who had arrived on a flight from Dubai.

The heroin was concealed in the side panelling of a specially tailored suitcase.

The 56-year-old man was arrested and handed over to gardaí at Ballymun Garda Station.

Married father-of-one Tony Butler, 40, was shot in the head after answering the door to two Ulster Defence Association gunmen in south Belfast in January 1993.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has announced that it retained parts of 64 crime victims and is contacting their families.

According to Mr Butler’s partner Maureen Jameson, officers left her with a decision on whether to bury his skull or incinerate it.

She said: “I am in total shock and very angry. I have been receiving counselling for years and have only just recently come to terms with losing Tony 19 years ago.”

Gary Howard (aged 24), of Emerald Street, Dublin 1 has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Patrick Mooney (aged 58) and Brendan Molyneaux (aged 46) on January 10, 2010.

The jury today watched video extracts of Howard being questioned by gardaí, during which he pointed to marks on his neck where he said he had attempted suicide because of the “lousy things” certain gardaí had been saying to him.

Patrick Mooney and Brendan Molyneaux, both family friends of Mr Howard’s, were found shot dead in Mr Mooney’s flat at Pearse House, Hanover Street in Dublin city centre at around 7  pm on Sunday, January 10, 2010.

Howard was arrested that night and held for questioning for more than five days at Kevin Street garda station, initially denying having carried out the killings, then admitting it, before finally retracting his earlier admission.

His confession came three days into his period of detention, when sobbing and shaking uncontrollably, Howard told gardaí how some months earlier he had been threatened with a gun in his mouth and told he would be killed if he did not murder Brendan Molyneaux.

He told gardaí he could not reveal who had threatened him, claiming his family “would all be wiped out” if he gave a name.

Howard also told gardaí the route he had taken by bicycle on the night of the double murders, from Guild Street north of the River Liffey, onto Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, past Ferryman’s Crossing where he discarded the bicycle, up Windmill Lane, onto Hanover Street and into the flat at 4G, Pearse House where the shootings had taken place.

He described the route he had taken after the shootings, travelling by foot around the city centre before getting a taxi from Amiens Street back to his girlfriend’s house in Finglas where he was arrested later that night.

Gary Howard identified himself in CCTV footage from numerous points along this route, but later told gardaí that his confession has been “all lies” and that he had only said what gardaí wanted him to say.

He said certain gardaí has been putting him under pressure and saying “bad things” about his family off camera because “they knew they’d lose their jobs” if it were to be recorded, claiming “they haven’t got the balls to say it on camera”.

He said he hadn’t been in the “right state of mind” when he had confessed, and that anyone who had experienced what he had been put through by certain guards would have done the same “unless they were made of steel and were not human”.

Detective Sergeant Adrian Whitelaw, a senior member of the investigating team who took part in 11 out of 24 interviews with Gary Howard, absolutely denied putting any pressure on the accused either on or off camera.

The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of six men and six women.

Matthew Leyden, 21,of The Walk, Downshire Park, Blessington pleaded guilty to possession of heroin for sale or supply at his then home in Suncroft Drive, Tallaght on February 17, 2011. He has no previous convictions.
Garda Donal O’Sullivan told Kerida Naidoo BL, prosecuting, that Leyden was on the dole and in debt for a car loan when a man offered to pay him €200 a week to store the drugs in his house.

Leyden said he had only been paid €60 so far but that he had not been threatened. He denied ever being involved in the selling of drugs.

Gda O’Sullivan agreed with a suggestion from Paul Comiskey O’Keefe BL, defending, that his client was a “vulnerable person”.

Mr Comiskey O’Keefe told Judge Patricia Ryan that his client, a father-of-one, was under financial pressure at the time of the offence as he was trying to pay off this car loan.

Judge Ryan had adjourned the sentence after hearing evidence last March to allow for the preparation of a Probation Service report.

She noted this report concluded that Leyden had been taken advantage of by someone who was “more street wise” than he was and it was accepted that he has not come to Garda attention since.

Judge Ryan sentenced Leyden to seven years in prison but suspended the final three years on the condition that he liaises with the Probation Service upon his release from prison.

Fred Forsey Junior of Coolagh Road, Dungarvan, denied six counts that he accepted corrupt payments of €60,000, €10,000 and €10,000 on dates in August, October and December 2006 in order to have agricultural land rezoned industrial land while a member of Dungarvan Town Council.

However, today at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court, the jury took less than two and a half hours to find Forsey guilty of all six counts.

Forsey looked visibly shocked as the verdict was read out and members of his supporters who were present in court were in tears.

Forsey was remanded on continuing bail to appear in Court next Thursday for sentencing.

After spending some time with his legal team Forsey left the Court House accompanied by his partner Karen Morrissey.

Martin Toland of Walkinstown Park will be sentenced next month for killing 28-year-old Alan Nolan and seriously injuring 30-year-old James Carroll at Cedar Brook Walk, Ballyfermot on September 8, 2007.

Toland stabbed Nolan five times at his friend’s apartment after a night playing poker and video games.

A punch-up about prank phone calls broke out and escalated to such a degree that Toland knifed his friend and another man, James Carroll.

He told gardaí that the two men advanced on him and that he acted in self-defence.

The 36-year-old was found guilty of murder two years ago, but the conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered.

Today he was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter by majority verdict, on the basis that he was provoked by Alan Nolan.

The 36-year -old gave no reaction to the verdict.

Mr Justice Barry White remanded him in custody for sentencing on June 11.