![\"Hugh](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_hugh-malomnePNG.png\")
Hugh Malone<\/p>\nThe lawyer said there was a \u201csignificant mental health context\u201d to the caseHugh Malone<\/p>\n
A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Stephen Brannigan and the attempted murder of a priest in Co Down.<\/p>\n
Hugh Malone, 30, of no fixed address but from the Belfast area, appeared via videolink from Musgrave police station<\/a> at Newtownards Magistrates\u2019 Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The body of Mr Brannigan, 56, was found in a house in Marian Park in Downpatrick<\/a> on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n On the same day, Father John Murray was attacked at St Patrick\u2019s Church<\/a> in the town. No details of the incident were given during the brief court hearing.<\/p>\n Malone was wearing a grey sweatshirt and confirmed that he understood the charges against him.<\/p>\n A Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detective chief inspector told the court that she could connect Malone to the charges.<\/p>\n A defence solicitor asked the officer to confirm that his client had had an appropriate adult or intermediary with him during police interviews.<\/p>\n The lawyer said there was a \u201csignificant mental health context\u201d to the case.<\/p>\n No application for bail was made and deputy district judge Peter Prenter remanded Malone in custody until September 4.<\/p>\n Fr John Murray is recovering in hospital after being attacked while preparing to celebrate his last mass before retirement at St Patrick\u2019s Church in Downpatrick on Sunday.<\/p>\n A church service in support of the family of Mr Brannigan and for Fr Murray was held in the town on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Mr Brannigan\u2019s family have described him<\/a> as a \u201cbeloved\u201d father and grandfather.<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong>here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lawyer said there was a \u201csignificant mental health context\u201d to the caseHugh Malone A man has appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[188,42734,1144,1618,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-341008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-downpatrick","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-psni","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115021205287996162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Stephen-Brannigan.jpg\")
Stephen Brannigan(Image: PSNI)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_01K2C8H1S7N5NE0BHE14RJAQ8A.jpg\")
A Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) scene of crime officer (SOCO)at the scene in the Marian Park area of Downpatrick(Image: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire )<\/p>\n