A drunk driver jailed for the death of a four-year-old boy was sentenced “as an example" to the wider community "rather than an individual”, his lawyers have submitted to the Court of Appeal.

The mother of a 23-year-old man who was beaten unconscious and left to drown in the River Shannon has said she cannot forget her son’s “massacred face” when she closes her eyes.

A retired pathologist has told a manslaughter trial that he disagrees with the conclusions of the chief State pathologist that the alleged victim died from a rare type of cardiac arrest.

The partner of a man whose body was found in a duvet days after his death has told a murder trial jury that the accused said he had cut off the deceased’s penis.

A 38-year-old Dublin man has gone on trial charged with the murder of a man whose body was found wrapped in a duvet in the days following his death.

A 22-year-old man has been found guilty of the murder of a Brazilian man in a bog in north Kerry in 2012.

A murder trial jury has been told it has sat through one of the worst set of facts in relation to any murder in the history of the State.

“I just didn’t think, I just jumped into the car.” Those were the words of Finbarr O’Rourke, the man who consumed up to 10 pints of cider before getting behind the wheel of a vehicle and crashing into a family car, resulting in the death of a four-year-old boy.

The Central Criminal Court in Tralee heard yesterday how the body of a Brazilian man found in a bog drain in north Kerry in 2012 had 64 stab wounds, along with multiple bruises and lacerations.

Lawyers for the State have told a murder trial jury it is “inescapable” that the accused participated in the death of a man in Dublin more than two years ago.

The passenger in a car driven by a man shot dead in front of his daughter told a murder trial jury he ran when another car pulled up beside him.

A 7-year-old girl who witnessed her father’s “execution” at their home told gardaí she felt a “little bit sad and a little happy because my dad is away from the bad boys now”, a murder trial has heard.

There has been a late surge in the number of complaints about the conduct of garda investigations, which is being examined by an expert panel of barristers.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has defended her appointment of seven barristers to review around 220 complaints of garda malpractice, despite claims of a conflict of interest.

If there is a "new era" in the Department of Justice — as promised by Minister Frances Fitzgerald when she took over the troubled portfolio — then Lucia O’Farrell can’t see it.

A Department of Justice review into numerous claims of Garda misconduct has been described as meaningless by one of the families whose complaint it is examining.

Nanny Aoife Phelan was not pregnant when she was strangled to death, a murder trial has heard.

Robert Corbet's murder trial has heard his account to gardaí of dumping the body of Laois nanny Aoife Phelan in a river was a "fiction".

A farm labourer has been jailed for 12 years for raping and sexually abusing his daughter for almost a decade.

A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to the murder of a man whose body was found in a wardrobe.

A jury was today asked to consider the evidence in the case of a man who was described as being butchered in his own home.

A Longford pig farmer who assaulted two men from a repossession company and threatened that they would be raped by an agitated boar was under serious financial pressure at the time, a court has been told.

A woman whose former partner and brother are accused of murdering a 28-year-old Brazilian man told a court yesterday the victim had said she had “a sexy voice and was probably hot’’.

A student who suffered brain injuries and required 41 stitches to the head after an assault on Grafton Street has told a court today that he does not want his attacker to go to prison.

A 25-year-old man who “befriended” a woman separated from her friends during a hen party before repeatedly raping her has been given a 15-year sentence.

A serial burglar was on bail when he broke into a woman’s house and repeatedly raped her, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

A burglar who sexually assaulted a woman in her daughter’s bedroom and punched her until she played dead has today been given a 10-year sentence.

A motorcyclist has been given a suspended sentence for leaving a pedestrian severely brain damaged after a judge noted “we all make mistakes.”

A man has been acquitted of the manslaughter of Offaly publican Matt Farrell during a burglary of a pub nearly three years ago.

The jury in the trial of a man accused of killing Offaly publican Matt Farrell has been told by a judge to treat the evidence of a “jailhouse informant” with care and caution.

The trial of a man accused of the manslaughter of an Offaly publican has today heard that none of the DNA profiles found at the scene matched that of the accused.

A rape trial has heard that the chances of DNA found at the scene not belonging to one of the three accused are “astronomical”.

The partner of the alleged victim of a gang rape in Monaghan has said he saw the three accused men in a room “half naked” and heard one man laughing and boasting.

A pregnant woman was raped by three men and urinated on in her Monaghan home after a row about missing vodka, it has been alleged at the Central Criminal Court.

A WOMAN has been acquitted of threatening to kill members of her family after a judge directed that there was insufficient evidence to show the threats would be carried out.

A MEATH man has been sentenced to eight years for glassing a man in a nightclub “for no apparent reason”, causing him to lose sight in one eye.

A DONEGAL man raped his ex-partner in front of their infant child, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

A Donegal man raped his ex-partner in front of their infant child, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

The trial of four gardaí accused of breaking into a flat and assaulting its then-teenage occupant has reached its closing stages at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A garda sergeant has today said that a member of her unit accused of trespass and assault admitted lying about being in a Basin Street flat a week after the alleged incident.

A Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury has listened to an audio recording of a phone call to the mother of a young man accusing four gardaí of assault at their flat.

A Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury has been shown mobile phone video footage of the young man accusing four gardaí of assault allegedly taken after the incident.

A 21-year old accusing four gardaí of assaulting him, instructed a solicitor to sue for the injuries he received in the alleged beating, a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.