Man charged with murder of Derry pensioner
A man arrested in England in connection with the stabbing of a pensioner in the North has appeared in court today charged with his murder.
James Alexander McCook is accused of stabbing Norman Moffatt (aged 73) as the pensioner walked home after buying his morning newspaper in Coleraine, Co Derry, in January 2001.
Last year, police made a fresh appeal for information on the murder and said the elderly man might have been the victim of a random attack.
McCook (aged 42) was arrested in Stockport on Monday by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), working with officers from Greater Manchester Police.
The defendant, who is originally from the North but was living on Stonemill Terrace, Lancashire Hill, in Stockport, was taken back to Antrim for questioning.
He appeared before District Judge Des Perry at Ballymena Magistrates' Court in Co Antrim.
McCook, wearing a black jacket, jeans and a white T-shirt and with black shaved hair, sat impassively in the dock during the brief hearing.
Mr Moffatt was stabbed between Railway Road and Circular Road in Coleraine at around 7am.
He was taken to hospital but died almost two months later.
McCook was remanded in custody to appear in Coleraine court via videolink next Monday.
