19-year-old boy dies after double beating

The death of a 19-year-old Irish student who was attacked twice on a night out in Northern Ireland is being probed by detectives on both sides of the border.

Jason McGovern, from County Monaghan, was found dead at a friend’s house south of the Irish border on Monday after being attacked in Omagh, County Tyrone.

It is thought the student at the Sligo Institute of Technology was punched at a pub at around midnight on Sunday and hit again two hours later outside a nightclub. He was found dead shortly after midday on New Year’s Eve.

Omagh SDLP councillor Dr Josephine Deehan said the death was “shocking in the extreme”.

“It is a parent’s worst nightmare that your child could go out for an evening’s entertainment and this sort of thing could happen,” she told the BBC.

Police want to trace a man with a stocky build and ginger or blond hair in connection with the attack.