A man who admitted murdering his pregnant former partner and committing child destruction against her unborn child has been sentenced at Laganside Courthouse in Belfast to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years. McBride J delivered sentencing remarks on 6 November 2026 in the case of King v Zak Hughes. Hughes, 29, pleaded guilty at first arraignment on 5 June 2026 to both offences.

Sarah Montgomery, 27, was murdered at her home on 27 June 2025. She was 32 weeks pregnant with a boy who was due on 20 August 2025. A post-mortem concluded that her death was due to a head injury consistent with blunt force trauma. The pathologist identified at least 59 applications of blunt force trauma across her head, torso, arms and legs. A perinatal report found that the unborn child died as a result of his mother's death and consequent oxygen deprivation after maternal circulation ceased.

The judge found that the attack lasted about 19 minutes and took place throughout the flat. He placed culpability in the exceptionally high category and adopted a 20-year starting point for the murder. Aggravating factors included the domestic relationship, the victim's vulnerability while heavily pregnant, the separate child destruction offence, and attempts to conceal the killing by cleaning the scene, discarding items and clothing, and sending messages to the victim's phone.

Mitigating factors included the spontaneous and non-premeditated nature of the attack, remorse and an early guilty plea. The judge increased the starting point to 25 years before reducing it by five years for the plea, arriving at a 20-year minimum term. The court treated the murder as the headline offence and child destruction as a serious aggravating factor.

For child destruction, McBride J imposed a concurrent determinate custodial sentence of 20 years, with 50 per cent to be served in custody and 50 per cent on licence. The judge said the life sentence for murder would supersede any sentence based on a dangerousness finding, so no separate dangerousness assessment was required.

The court made an order under Article 22(1) of the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 preventing disclosure of information that would identify the children concerned in the proceedings. Hughes will serve the 20-year minimum term before being considered for release by the Parole Commissioners, who will decide whether release on licence is appropriate.