{"id":359591,"date":"2026-02-27T19:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/359591\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T19:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:49:09","slug":"man-to-plead-guilty-to-killing-chloe-mitchell-before-murder-trials-planned-start-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/359591\/","title":{"rendered":"Man to plead guilty to killing Chloe Mitchell before murder trial\u2019s planned start \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Co Antrim<\/a> man is to plead guilty to killing Chloe Mitchell by reason of diminished responsibility, a court heard on Friday.<\/p>\n

Brandon John Rainey (29), formerly of James Street, Ballymena<\/a>, was due to go on trial at Belfast<\/a> Crown Court<\/a> on March 9th for the murder of Chloe Mitchell, which he denied.<\/p>\n

He had further denied a charge of attempting to prevent \u201cthe lawful and decent burial of a deceased body\u201d on the same date, June 3rd, 2023. <\/p>\n

During an emergency hearing at Belfast Crown Court on Friday before Judge Denise McBride, senior defence counsel Neil Connor said he wanted to update the court following a review of proceedings on Thursday and before the proposed trial next month. <\/p>\n

Connor said he, his junior counsel and instructing solicitor met Rainey on Thursday and received changed instructions from their client.<\/p>\n

He said he had an application to amend the previously lodged defence statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat document reflects the change in instructions we received yesterday and there is now a general acceptance on behalf of Mr Rainey that he killed Ms Mitchell. I use that term as opposed to murdering Ms Mitchell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is a medical defence now based on diminished responsibility which centres round his state of mind at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the legal team would need to time to obtain an updated psychiatric report which will be relied upon, and requested the March 9th trial date be vacated.<\/p>\n

Senior prosecution counsel David Russell said he was adopting a \u201ccautious approach\u201d to the change in instructions by the defendant.<\/p>\n

He said the prosecution\u2019s position was that the court sit on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026, in case the \u201caccused changes his mind\u201d and does not see the psychiatrist.<\/p>\n

Following legal submissions, the judge said the proposed trial would not commence on March 9th.<\/p>\n

Instead, Rainey would be rearraigned on March 12th and she ordered his production from custody to appear at Belfast Crown Court.<\/p>\n

Thanking counsel for alerting her to progress in the case, McBride said: \u201cI think it is a welcome development and one I hope is welcomed by the family.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chloe Mitchell\u2019s remains were found days after she went missing. She was last seen alive on CCTV in Ballymena town centre in the early hours of June 3rd, 2023. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Human remains confirmed as those of Chloe MitchellOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

An extensive search operation was launched by the Poice Service of Northern Ireland. Detectives investigating her disappearance launched a murder inquiry after human remains were discovered in the Co Antrim town.<\/p>\n

This led officers to attend a flat in the James Street area, which prompted Rainey\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Co Antrim man is to plead guilty to killing Chloe Mitchell by reason of diminished responsibility, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[17296,98148,663,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,952,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-359591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-antrim","tag-ballymena","tag-belfast","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116144332117352696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359591","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=359591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}