TWO MEN  HAVE been sentenced in court in relation to their role in a video that showed people mocking the murder of Michaela McAreavey, which was filmed in an Orange Order Hall in Northern Ireland.

Today at Laganside Magistrates Court, 26-year-old Steven Kane was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 18 months, after being found guilty of the offence of behaviour likely to stir up hatred. 

Cian Jones (23) was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for the same offence, after pleading guilty earlier in the year.

A third man, (22), has been found guilty and will be sentenced next month.

The sentencing comes after a police investigation into footage of singing at an event hosted in a venue in Dundonald, County Down, in May 2022, which was streamed live on social media.

In the clip, filmed in an Orange Hall, several men are seen singing a song about the death of Michaela McAreavey.

The 27-year-old teacher was strangled in her room at the Legends Hotel in Mauritius on 10 January 2011.

McAreavey, who had married her husband John ten days earlier, was attacked after she returned to her room alone and disturbed a burglary.

No-one has been convicted of murdering the daughter of Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte.

The video was widely condemned across the political sphere in Northern Ireland and beyond. 

Detective Inspector Bell said that today’s sentencing should send a “clear message” to those involved in this type of crime, that they will be “vigorously pursued and brought before the courts to face the consequences of such activity”.