lit a candle 2h agoMy mother rang me from Bangor to tell me, it was already all over the news back home by the time I woke up here. A child sitting in a car outside while it happened, I can't get that out of my head. 27 years old, two kids and a third who never got the chance to be born. Thinking of her family this morning.
Their story
Sarah Montgomery was a 27 year old mother of two from Donaghadee, a seaside town in County Down, Northern Ireland. She became known to the public only through the manner of her death: in June 2025 she was beaten to death in her own flat by her partner, Zak Hughes,…
Sarah Montgomery was a 27 year old mother of two from Donaghadee, a seaside town in County Down, Northern Ireland. She became known to the public only through the manner of her death: in June 2025 she was beaten to death in her own flat by her partner, Zak Hughes, who was also the father of the unborn child she was carrying. She was 32 weeks pregnant at the time, and the baby she had intended to name Liam Arthur died as a result of the attack.
Sarah Montgomery had not sought public attention before her death. What is known about her comes largely from the criminal proceedings that followed, which described her as a devoted mother to her two young children. One of those children was sitting in a car nearby when the fatal attack took place inside her home, a detail that drew particular distress from the public and from campaigners against domestic violence when it emerged in court.
Hughes, 29, was charged with the murder of Sarah Montgomery and with child destruction over the death of her unborn baby. At Belfast Crown Court, prosecutors said she had been subjected to blunt force trauma at least 59 times during the attack, and the case was described in court as among the worst domestic violence cases to come before it. On 6 November 2026, Hughes was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison. The attack was characterised in court as callous and deceitful.
Sarah Montgomery's death mattered because it became, through the courts, a stark and public illustration of the dangers faced by women in abusive relationships, particularly during pregnancy. Her case drew attention in Northern Ireland and beyond to the risks pregnant women face from intimate partners, and to the loss of a child who never had the chance to be born. Campaigners and commentators pointed to the case as evidence of the continuing scale of domestic violence and the need for earlier intervention.
No funeral or memorial details have been made public at the time of writing. Tributes to Sarah Montgomery have so far come mainly through reaction to the sentencing, with members of the public and domestic violence campaigners expressing grief for her and for the son she did not live to meet. Her full life story, including her education, work and the names of her surviving children, has not been made public, in keeping with the family's evident wish for privacy beyond what the court case required.
Biography adapted from News reports and the sources cited on this page; death reported by Love Ballymena.
Photos
1by People Forever
Same, my sister called me about it too. Just awful.