Tag Archives: Mr Justice Paul Carney

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 …

A Clare resident who began sexually abusing his Limerick niece from the age of six will be sentenced next week at the Central Criminal Court. The 48-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, later began raping the child from when she was aged nine on a regular basis in his bedsit in County Clare. The court heard how the child would beg her mother not to let her stay over with him, telling her mother: “Please Mum, don’t let me go, I’ll be good”. During the trial the victim said her mother would still let her uncle take the child to the flat every few weeks. While staying over with him, the man would molest the child and force her to touch his private parts. He also forced her to perform more explicit sexual acts on him, including oral rape. Last December a jury found him guilty of eight counts of rape and 17 counts of sexual assault …

A judge has told the jury in the trial of an Ennis man accused of murder, that alcohol is not a defence to criminal responsibility. The jury is expected to begin its deliberations on this Friday in the case of Michael Maughan (40) of Stone Court, Ennis, who has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Piotr Nowakowski (31) at Sandfield Mews, Ennis on July 23, 2013. Last week, the Central Criminal Court was told the manslaughter plea was not acceptable to the prosecution and a jury was sworn in for the week-long murder trial. Mr Nowakowski was stabbed twice and died in an ambulance on the way to Shannon Airport where he was to be airlifted to hospital in Cork. The court heard that the accused and his brother had been drinking with the deceased and two other men in an apartment in the Sandfield complex earlier that day and returned there later that night. …