A man, 35, has pleaded guilty to murdering a “defenceless” two-year-old girl in Dungannon in August 2021. The girl, Ali Jayden Doyle, was killed in a house in the Park Avenue area of the County Tyrone town. Darryn John Armstrong, from HMP Maghaberry, had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge. However, on Tuesday, his barrister Brian McCartney KC told Mr Justice O’Hara “there is an application to have the defendant re-arraigned”. The judge imposed a life sentence on Armstrong, stating: “For murder, the mandatory sentence in this jurisdiction is life imprisonment.”
At the time of the girl’s death, Armstrong had been intermittently seeing her mother, Jade Dempsey. Both Armstrong and Ms Dempsey appeared in court in September 2023 and denied involvement in her death. Mr Justice O’Hara outlined how Armstrong had initially blamed the girl’s one-year-old brother for causing the fatal wound by throwing a toy at her. The judge told Armstrong: “More recently you admitted that you yourself h
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