Wrongly accused son slams police

Annie McCartan had been celebrating her 75th birthday

Police investigating the murder of a County Down pensioner in June 2006 failed to properly investigate a strong lead, her son has said.

Charges of murdering Annie McCartan were dropped against David and his wife Geraldine because of lack of evidence.

She was found beaten and stabbed to death in her Warrenpoint home.

Mr McCartan said sightings of two men on the day were not adequately acted upon, and he feared his mother's killers would now never be caught.

"We're dealing with a police force which is obviously incapable of adding one and one and coming up with two," he said.

What kept me going was that my mother knew I was innocent - that was the important thing David McCartan

"It's two-and-a-half years too late - nobody who was there that day will remember something that happened so long ago."

Mr McCartan said police had "jumped on" plans he had to develop land near his Warrenpoint home as a "handy motive" to accuse him of killing his mother.

"It didn't include land or anything to do with my mother's house. She was never against anything I was going to do - it was actually the opposite as she wanted to see me achieve.

He said he was still grieving when he was sent to prison on remand.

"What kept me going was that my mother knew I was innocent - that was the important thing," he said.

"What everybody else thinks is irrelevant - when you know the truth, it will help you get through bad times."

He said his family remained close.

"There are some tensions within the family obviously, and there's a lot of hostility towards the police for what they have done by making up this story.

"Nobody ever wanted to believe this. You have a family who is grieving for their mother, at the lowest point in their lives, and somebody plays upon this. The police have a lot to answer for."