A social media stalker waited outside of the home of former welterweight boxing champion Eamonn Magee’s son. Eamonn Magee Jr. started his career just last year trying to follow in his father’s footsteps. On the night of May 30, he went outside to check on a pizza delivery. He was then attacked by someone hiding outside and stabbed multiple times.
The police described the crime as vicious in nature. Chief Deputy John McVea explained what happened to the Belfast Telegraph .
“Nobody would have known that Eamonn would have been coming out of the house to look for the pizza delivery, therefore we believe that the person was lying in wait for Eamonn as he would have come out of the house.”
The social media stalker is in custody. The twist in all of this is the stalker was not there because he was obsessed with the future boxing star. The stalker was actually the former partner of Eamonn Magee Jr.’s girlfriend, Courtney Ward. Orhan Koca, 32, appeared via videolink from Maghaberry Prison for his bond hearing on June 15. The prosecution, as well as the police, both requested that Koca be held without bail due to the possibility of a flight risk.
The prosecution went on to explain the relationship Miss Ward had with Koca as well as the events that led to his arrest as explained by UTV .
“The defendant had been stalking her, mainly via social media, and advising her to stop seeing her boyfriend.”
He went on to explain that they had found the stalker’s jeans covered in Magee’s blood at Beckett’s Bar. The defendant both works and stays at Beckett’s Bar. The clothes were also found next to Koca’s cloths. Despite the mounting evidence, Koca still maintains his innocence.
Eamonn was an up-and-coming fighter with a promising future. A senior officer who knows the family well explained what kind of person Magee was.
“Eamonn was so popular and had such a promising future ahead of him. He was so young. He won a number of fights in the early stages of his boxing career. He had a promising future and it is particularly sad for that to have been taken away so needlessly.”
A number of members of the Boxing community have reached out via social media to express their condolences to the family of Magee, including former champion Barry McGuigan, Ricky Hatton, and Double Olympic Champion Paddy Barnes.
This isn’t the first case where a social media stalker lay in wait to kill an unsuspecting public figure. What do you feel should happen to Orhan Koca? Was this a crime of passion, or was this something much more sinister?
[Photo by The Guardian]
