Tag Archives: Central Criminal Court

A Clare man who sexually abused and raped his daughter over a 13-year period has been jailed for 11 and a half years. Patrick Honan (69) was found guilty following a Central Criminal Court trial in February of 48 sample counts including 25 of rape and 23 of indecent assault. The victim in this case, Noreen Honan, has waived her right to anonymity to allow her father to be named. The abuse took place at the family home at Lake View, Doonbeg, Co. Clare between 1977 and 1989 when she was aged between three and a half and 16. It included inappropriate touching, vaginal and oral rape, forced kissing, masturbation and digital penetration of her vagina. Honan of Lake View, Doonbeg, Kilrush, Co. Clare does not accept the verdicts of the jury and maintains his innocence, the court was previously told. Today, Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford imposed a 13-year custodial sentence, with the final 18 months suspended. She also directed …

The niece of a 78-year-old widower has told the Central Criminal Court that her family have experienced a raw, pervasive fear “stemming from the chilling reality of evil so close to home”. The testimony was heard as part of three emotional victim impact statements read today to the Central Criminal Court, where 34-year-old Thomas Lorigan was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering his uncle Mr O’Neill. The sentence was backdated to January 8 2022, when he went into custody. Niamh Higgins, niece of Mr O’Neill, told the Central Criminal Court today that the “cruel loss” of her uncle to this “heinous murder has plunged us into a whirlwind of raw feelings”. She added: “Feelings we find ourselves wholly unprepared for – overwhelming grief, despair, trauma, including a pervasive fear stemming from the chilling reality of evil so close to home”. Ms Higgins said that to think of the injuries “being inflicted by a stranger” would be …

THE State has been granted further time to serve a book of evidence on a man accused of attempted murder in Clare. Tony McInerney (27), with a previous address in Glenina, Gort Road, Ennis, and originally from Dublin, is accused of the attempted murder of Daniel Harty in Sixmilebridge on January 18, 2020. McInerney, an unemployed father-of-two, is also charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation; discharge of a firearm and threats to kill or cause serious harm.  The case against McInerney is to proceed in the central criminal court.  At Ennis district court this Wednesday, Sergeant Aiden Lonergan sought to have the case adjourned for two weeks to allow for service of the book of evidence.  Sergeant Lonergan told the court the case involves an allegation of attempted murder and a “significant piece of work” has gone into the preparation of the book of evidence.  Defence solicitor John Casey told the court that he understood the book …

A YOUNG man who “opportunistically” raped a university student friend after creeping into her bed in the middle of the night has been jailed for four and a half years. The now 23-year-old Clare man was found guilty by a jury of one count of raping the young woman at an address in Dublin on May 23, 2017 following a Central Criminal Court trial last July. He has no previous convictions. The woman, now aged 25, told the court that after the attack she lost many university friends, with a lot of people saying she was lying. She said many of her male friends urged her not to go to gardaí telling her that she was “over-reacting”. The court heard the man now accepts the guilty verdict and a letter of apology was handed up to court. The court heard the woman’s two male friends, including the defendant, spent the night in her apartment after watching a movie and she …

AT THE sentencing hearing last Friday of Patrick Ballard for the murder of Sharon Bennett in Ennis in early 2021, Detective Garda Noelle Bergin detailed the background to the incident. She told prosecution counsel Dominic McGinn SC that Ms Bennett died on February 10, 2021 having been assaulted by Bennett two weeks earlier on January 28. Outlining the events that led up to the murder, Mr McGinn said that both Ms Bennett and Ballard had been living in temporary accommodation in Ennis and were habitually drinking in the centre of Ennis on the afternoon of January 28. At the time of “the violence” the pair had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol, added the detective. At one point, there was a “clear disagreement” between the accused and Ms Bennett, which resulted in the mother-of-two kicking or “striking” Ballard in the face. Ms Bennett, Ballard and a third man Hussein ‘Jamesie’ Abdullah left the car park area to enter a public toilet …

THE father of 29-year-old Sharon Bennett, who was repeatedly kicked and had her head “danced on” by her partner in a public toilet, has said that their lives are “devastated” and described her murder as a nightmare from which they cannot wake up. PJ Bennett told the Central Criminal Court this Friday that he was sorry he had let his daughter down and that he did not protect her enough. He added: “I would like to say that I don’t blame the Ballard family for what happened to my daughter. I blame Patrick Ballard only; we have all lost here”. Mr Bennett also told the court how Covid restrictions meant the family were not permitted to see Sharon in intensive care for five days after she was admitted to hospital and could not hold a proper funeral when she passed away. Sentencing judge Mr Justice Paul Burns noted that the circumstances of the killing were “truly harrowing and grim” and …

A 35-year-old man carried out “a violent attack” on his partner, mother-of-two Sharon Bennett, by “repeatedly” kicking and stamping on her head in a public toilet in Ennis last year, a prosecution barrister has told a murder trial. Defence counsel Mark Nicholas SC, for Patrick Ballard, told the 12 jurors that his client admitted that his actions caused the death of his partner Ms Bennett and accepted that her killing was unlawful. However, Mr Ballard (35), formerly of Ashford Court Hotel, Ennis, Co Clare has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Bennett (29) in the Market area of Ennis on February 10, 2021. Mr Ballard and Ms Bennett were in a relationship at the time of the alleged murder. Ms Bennett was a mother of two girls, then aged nine and six, from a previous relationship. In his opening address on Wednesday, prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn SC said Ms Bennett died on February 10 2021 as a result of a …

THE family of a young Kilrush woman who was murdered 16 years ago are “up in a heap” over the release of her convicted killer before Christmas, according to her brother. Ann Walsh from Pella Road, Kilrush, was 23 years and four months old when she was strangled by her former boyfriend, Raymond Donovan from Cooraclare in the grounds of St Senan’s Church, Kilrush, on August 24, 2005. Mr Donovan was convicted of her murder at the Central Criminal Court in Ennis with Mr Justice Paul Carney imposing a mandatory life sentence following a unanimous guilty verdict by a jury. Ann had been going out with Donovan for three years, but had split from him a year previous to the attack. Her brother, Stephen Walsh said the Walsh family are “up in a heap” over the decision to release Raymond Donovan before Christmas. Mr Walsh claimed he was informed by the prison service recently there would be nothing done in …