Sitting down in the George family home in west Belfast, you would be forgiven for thinking this was just a normal Saturday in the life of Billy George.
Celtic are on their way to a 4-1 victory over Ross County on the television, as he sits alone on the settee while the chatter from several other family members in the kitchen can be overheard in the background.
There is nothing that gives away the turmoil of the last month since he started to become concerned for the whereabouts of his 37-year-old son John.
A rare moment of solitude to gather his thoughts on his first day back at home since flying out to Alicante to look for John on December 21.
That search ultimately ended in what the family had feared when his body was found, shot dead and dumped among an orchard of lemon trees in a remote part of the Costa Blanca.
Shot dead, his family believes, after a personal insult John directed towards a woman during a drink and drug fuelled argument at a house in Orihuela.
A life of crime had followed the Twinbrook man since his late teens, culminating in his death on the Costa.
“John was a good kid, but got into trouble when he was 16 and followed an older crowd,” Billy says.
“He went to Rathgael then transferred to Hydebank. He couldn’t sleep at night and started taking medication, and got addicted to that medication.
“When he got out of jail that addiction got worse. Once he got into trouble his life just went downhill.
“Once John went to jail we never got the same person back.”
His sister Courteney, six years his junior, said the family tried everything within their power to drag John away from a life of crime. He had multiple convictions for drugs-related offences and at the time of his disappearance was facing charges connected to a £30,000 drugs seizure from a taxi he was travelling in April 2023.
“Even when he was in and out of prison, he always had us. We tried to get him help, we tried to make sure he had a house over his head, clothes on his back and food in his belly,” Courteney says.
“His addiction was prescription medication, but he was able to function with everyday life while taking them.
“He knew he was on the wrong path, but he just couldn’t beat his addiction. So many times he tried, but he just wasn’t strong enough, and as he got older the addiction got worse.
“It was when John met the friends that brought him out there [to Spain], that’s when his life started to really spiral.
“They were selling him the dream of who he could be, he could do this, do that. That’s what they did, sold him the dream and then took his life.”
There are those in society who say that John deserved the end that he met because of the damage inflicted by the world of criminality and drugs that he was involved in.
“Everybody has an opinion,” Billy says. “Wait until it comes to your own door.
“This is a wicked, wicked world. Nobody can see into the future, people can say what they want but until it comes to their own door they will never understand.
“Whatever John did in his life, you wouldn’t leave a dog at the side of the road the way he was left.”
A 32-year-old man from the Czech Republic was arrested in connection with the murder investigation not long after John’s body was found. He was later released on bail but forced to surrender his passport while the probe continues.
A solicitor for the man told Spanish media that their client had no involvement in John’s death, the same thing the man said to Billy when they met at a fast food restaurant while the searches for John were ongoing.
With speculation rife that the main suspect in the case had travelled to Thailand, Billy says he does not believe that to be the case.
Before travelling to Alicante, the grieving father says he spoke with the man on the phone, who encouraged him to come out and stay at his home while looking for John. Once he arrived, the man refused to meet him.
“He asked me why he would want to tell me anything, that I was a stranger and refused to meet me, after telling me I could come and stay in his house.
“I told him - you’re up to your neck in this.”
Asked whether they were surprised at the massive public response to John’s disappearance and murder, his family say they had to fight to be listened to, by the authorities, by the media, and by the public.
Courteney says: “We were surprised, because we’re a tiny fish in a big pond. We have four siblings and my mummy and daddy, and we had to be loud because no one was listening.
“We do have a very big family, everybody came together. In the end because we were loud, people did listen.”
“The people that killed John thought that he was just a tablet head, but they were wrong,” Billy adds.
“I believe that the attitude from the authorities was that John was just another criminal.”
After returning to Belfast on Friday, the George family say they will not coming back to the Alicante area until John’s killers have been caught and justice has been done.
“The only way I’ll be back in that country is to go to court to watch those people go down for what they have done,” says Courteney.
“They put us through hell, but I want to face the people that were the last ones to see my brother alive.
“I want them to see my face and what they have done to us.”
