Keady: Man pleads guilty to murdering 11-month-old Hunter McGleenon

Hunter McGleenon was 11 months old when he died in November 2019

A man has admitted murdering his then girlfriend's 11-month-old son in Keady, County Armagh.

Sharyar Ali, 34, of Westenra Terrace in Monaghan, was due to go to trial on Wednesday for the 2019 murder of Hunter Patrick McGleenon.

Ali's lawyer asked that the murder charge be put to the Pakistani national again, to which he responded "guilty".

He had originally claimed Hunter had sustained head injuries by falling off a sofa.

Ali will receive an automatic life sentence.

None of the facts were heard in open court on Wednesday but a previous court had heard that Ali had been in a relationship with the baby's mother Nicole for a year.

He looked after the baby while she visited her terminally-ill grandmother.

When he brought the boy back the next day, he said the child could not breathe and when the family ran to the car to check, the court heard, the baby was cold to touch.

A court was also previously told "at no time" did he seek medical help.

Ali admitted to murdering Hunter on 26 November 2019 and the prosecutor asked for a second charge of causing actual bodily harm on a date unknown between 24 and 27 November to be left on the books.

Mr Justice McFarland adjourned the case to 15 June for Hunter's family to make victim impact statements.