A sixth man was last night charged with the murder in Portadown of Robert Hamill.

The RUC said the 25-year-old Portadown man was due to appear in Craigavon magistrates court this morning.

More than 1000 mourners attended the funeral yesterday of the Catholic kicked to death in Portadown as five young men appeared in court charged with murdering him.

The men were remanded in custody when they appeared at a special court in the RUC station at Lurgan, County Armagh, charged with murdering Hamill.

The 25-year-old father-of-two died in hospital on Thursday from injuries he suffered in a vicious attack in Portadown two weeks ago.

The defendants, all from Portadown, were Allister Hanvey, 19, machine operator of Derryanville Road; Wayne David Lunt, 17, labourer, of Manderly Court; Paul Rodney Marc Hobson, 20, unemployed, of Deer Park; Dean Forbes, 19, painter and decorator, of Deramore Drive, and Stacey Bridgett, 19, roofer of Donard Walk. They were remanded in custody until June 4.

An RUC detective inspector told the court that when charged all the men denied the charge.

Meanwhile, a Protestant man remained on a life support machine in hospital after being attacked and beaten in a sectarian attack in the early hours of Saturday.

Ivan Heatherington, 21, was walking along a road in the Waterside area of Londonderry after leaving a Chinese take-away when he was kicked and beaten by three men.

A number of men arrested following the incident remain in RUC custody.

As tensions continued to heighten across Northern Ireland a bomb was defused in a car in the centre of Belfast.

The device, containing Semtex, and a timer, is believed by police to have been abandoned on its way to an unknown target when the detonator went off. The car had been stolen earlier.