The death of a pensioner during a robbery at his Northern Ireland home is nowbeing treated as murder, police said today.
They made the announcement after receiving the preliminary results of a postmortem carried out on Ted O'Hare, 73, who was found dead by his three elderlybrothers at their farmhouse at Loughbrickland, Co Down, at the weekend.
The three brothers were confronted with a gang of five masked men after theyarrived home from mass on Saturday evening.
The gang fled after a struggle with the pensioners, who then found their otherbrother's body - he had been in the house while they were out.
Mr O'Hare suffered from a heart condition and had only been released fromhospital following treatment a few days before his death.
Two of his brothers were treated in hospital for injuries following therobbery, the third was treated by a doctor at the scene.
At the weekend police will be distributing leaflets throughout the area in abid to jog people's memories about the robbery which became a murder.