Two men deny giving out jailhouse beating to alleged child killer Darren Armstrong

While 38-year-old Stephen James Moore appeared at Craigavon Crown Court by videolink from prison, his co-accused Robert Robinson (35) stood in the dock of the court.

Moore, from Oakley Street in Belfast and Robinson, from Kilbride Gardens in Antrim, each denied a single charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Darren Armstrong on 26 August last year, intending to cause him really serious harm.

Two weeks before the alleged jailhouse beating 32-year-old Armstrong, from Ashbeg Grove in Dungannon, had been remanded into custody charged with the murder of two-year-old Ali Jayden Doyle.

The little girl’s mother 25-year-old Jade Dempsey, who is originally from Dublin but lives at Sycamore Drive in Dungannon, is charged with causing or allowing the death of a child and perverting the course of justice.

Previous courts have heard in that case how paramedics were called to Armstrong’s address on 8 August last year where Ali was found unresponsive.

He claimed her baby brother has hit her with a toy and caused her to fall and strike her head on the fireplace but paramedics became concerned and contacted police and Social Services.

A postmortem revealed Ali’s head trauma was most likely non-accidental with injuries so extensive the pathologist couldn’t say how many times there was impact.

In relation to the case against Moore and Robinson, defence barristers Neil Moore and Patrick Taggart said they were due to have consultations with their clients once all of the CCTV footage, which is “central to the case,” had been received.

Adjourning the case for two weeks, Judge Patrick Lynch QC said it was unlikely the trial would be heard before September.