A man who became suicidal after discovering the decomposed body of teenage murder victim Sonia Forsythe in April 1996, five years after she disappeared, was yesterday freed on a suspended jail term for drugs offences.
Belfast Crown Court heard that William Barry Orr (28) turned the bedroom of his east Belfast home into a greenhouse for growing herbal cannabis. Orr uncovered the body of the 13-year-old teenager wrapped in a carpet in a coal bunker at the former Sydney Street West home of James Junior Craig, who was jailed for life last year for the murder.
Mr Charles McCrainor, defending, said Orr, who became suicidal, was at the time already trying to come to terms with the death of two friends who died in a gas leak. He said Orr had returned to his drug habit, but was now obtaining counselling and had become his mother's carer.
Suspending Orr's 2 1/2-year jail term for five years, Judge Anthony Hart said he was prepared to be more lenient because of his devotion as his mother's sole carer. Orr pleaded guilty to growing and possessing the herbal cannabis on January 22nd and to having cannabis resin for supply.