15:41, 12 Dec 2025Updated 16:55, 12 Dec 2025<\/p>\n
![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Cookstown-collage2.jpg\")
(L-R) Connor Currie, Lauren Bullock and Morgan Barnard died while queuing for a disco<\/p>\n
A hotel owner and a member of security staff have denied charges related to the deaths of three teenagers who died in a fatal crush on St Patrick’s Day.<\/p>\n
Lauren Bullock and Morgan Barnard, both 17, and 16-year-old Connor Currie lost their lives at the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown, Co Tyrone<\/a>, where they were planning on attending a St Patrick’s Day disco in March 2019.<\/p>\n Hotel owner Michael McElhatton, 58, of Rock Road, Moneymore, Co Derry, and self-employed security staff member Seamus Mitchell, 47, of Mullan Road, Coagh, appeared at Belfast<\/a> Crown Court<\/a> charged with three counts of manslaughter, which they deny.<\/p>\n Mr McElhatton also faces further health and safety charges as director of Tobin Limited, accused of failing to ensure the safety of non-employees.<\/p>\n The families of the three deceased teenagers packed the public gallery inside the courtroom on Friday (December 12) as the two defendants were arraigned.<\/p>\n Madam Justice McBride asked Crown barrister Charles MacCreanor KC how long he expected the trial to last. Saying both the prosecution and defence were “keen to get the case to hearing as soon as it is ready to be heard”, Mr MacCreanor estimated that the trial will last around three months.<\/p>\n “Given that the events in respect of the charges took place in 2019, it’s in everyone’s interests that we try and get this matter to trial as practically and as reasonably as we can,” Madam Justice McBride noted, after hearing several issues in the case were outstanding.<\/p>\n A date was set for the trial to commence from October 5, 2026, while the senior judge addressed the families of the teenagers, telling them: “I appreciate this is very distressing, it’s been ongoing for a long, long time.<\/p>\n “Hopefully today, now that we have a target date, that is something for everyone to work towards.<\/p>\n “There are some uncertainties between now and then, and you will understand there will be reasons why that date is not achieved, but to essentially ensure that date is achieved, I am managing this case, and I am going to have regular reviews and make sure that if I set dates for certain things to be done, those dates are achieved.<\/p>\n “Hopefully, in that way, this trial will commence on the date that I have set, and if it doesn’t start on that date, it will start shortly thereafter.”<\/p>\n Madam Justice McBride then said she would review the case on January 16, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lauren Bullock, Morgan Barnard, and Connor Currie were to attend a St Patrick’s Day disco Ashleigh Mcdonald and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,9,10,27,715,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,32,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-230092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-tyrone","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1_JS276112443.jpg\")
Michael McElhatton, owner of The Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown, Co Tyrone(Image: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Cookstown-incident-funerals.jpg\")
Members of the Edendork St Malachys football squad form a guard of honour during teammate Connor Currie’s funeral(Image: PA)<\/p>\n