The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
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 …
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