The Central Criminal Court trial heard that Melanie was shot in the head as she sat in a car with her boyfriend and his friend in Tallaght.

Dublin criminal and serial child abuser Stephen "Rossi" Walsh has been refused an enlargement of time to appeal convictions for rape and defilement of a child.

A man who raped a woman in her apartment after she invited him in for drinks with friends, has had his eight-year jail term cut to five on appeal.

The Court of Appeal has ordered that a man be retried for one of two murders, after finding that the trial judge in one of his trials, should have simply said ‘yes’ in response to a question from the jury.

A man jailed for life for the murder of Jonathan Duke in Bandon, Co Cork, five years ago has moved to appeal his conviction.

A Limerick man who successfully appealed against his conviction for the murder of his partner yesterday pleaded guilty to her manslaughter.

A convicted murder who claimed he accidentally shot the man he blamed for his brother’s suicide and poisoning of his father’s dogs has moved to appeal his conviction.

A man jailed for life for the murder of a French musician and juggler in Bray seven years ago has had an appeal against his conviction dismissed.

An appeal against the life sentence handed down to a man who raped two girls after luring them from a party in Athlone has been dismissed.

A Cork man jailed for life last year for the murder of a mother of three in her home has won an appeal against conviction but now faces a possible retrial.

A Dublin man has moved to appeal the 20-year sentence handed down to him for his part in the killing of Melanie McCarthy McNamara.

The son of a murdered gang leader was among a violent mob of rival family factions who clashed when they came face to face while collecting dole at the city’s social welfare office, a court heard.

A Cork man jailed for life last year for the murder of a mother-of-three in her home, which he then set on fire, has moved to appeal his conviction.

Paul Carney, the former criminal law judge who presided over some of the most high profile and controversial cases in recent decades, died yesterday at the age of 72 after a short illness.

Ann O’Loughlin looks back on the high-profile and occasionally controversial career of the late Justice Paul Carney

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

For decades Christy Keane’s family ran a sizeable coal delivery business from their base in St Mary’s Park, better known as the Island Field. He soon discovered his delivery business was an ideal cover to get into drugs.

A man jailed for life 10 years ago has had a bid to have his conviction declared a miscarriage of justice, based on a recent Supreme Court decision, dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

The inquest into the death of an elderly woman who died in a nursing home has found that suffocation by smothering with a pillow was the cause of death, in line with “circumstantial evidence”, even though there were no “identifiable” asphyxial signs on her body.

An ex-Republican Paramilitary, who left the jurisdiction after he was “detected” for the rape and sexual abuse two young girls in the Republic of Ireland, has had his prison sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal.

A man who had sex with a 15-year-old girl at a party has been jailed for two years at the Central Criminal Court.

A man has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court for the manslaughter of archaeologist Emmett Connolly, who died after being stabbed 17 times.

A Dublin man has received a 12-year sentence, with the final two years suspended, for the repeated rape of his partner’s then 11-year-old daughter in her Galway home.

An “accomplished boxer” has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, with the last two years suspended, for the manslaughter of a mother of two with whom he had been in a “turbulent relationship”.

There was an angry outburst from the murderer of a 59-year-old homeless man as he was being sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday at the end of a three-week trial.

An “accomplished boxer” will be sentenced next month for the manslaughter of a mother of two with whom he had been in a “turbulent relationship”.

A witness in a murder trial testified yesterday that she laughed when the accused told her over the phone that he assaulted someone and threw him down a drainpipe because she thought it was impossible.

A murder trial witness said the accused first jokingly called a 59-year-old homeless man a paedophile and a kiddy-fiddler, then said it seriously and assaulted him, dragged him out of a flat, and came back saying “he has gone down the drain”.

The senior judge of the Central Criminal Court was praised in tributes from lawyers in Cork on the occasion of his last visit as a judge – and his own seven-word reply made his feelings clear about his forthcoming retirement from the bench: “There is nothing voluntary about my going.”

A Dublin man will be sentenced next month for the repeated rape of his partner’s then 11-year-old daughter in her Galway home.

“Any other child that is out there that has been abused or raped, I think they should really come forward and not let anyone else cut them down for what has happened to them. They’re the innocent ones. They’re not the sex offender.”

A Clare resident who began sexually abusing his Limerick niece from the age of six has been jailed for 15 years at the Central Criminal Court.

A Dublin man has been found not guilty of the murder but guilty of the manslaughter of archaeologist Emmett Connolly in Co Cavan 18 months ago.

A man whose neighbour allowed him to rape her daughter repeatedly over a three-year period from the age of five has been sentenced to 14 years in prison following a finding last year by the Court of Appeal that his original eight-year-sentence was too lenient.

A Central Criminal Court jury in the trial of a Dublin man charged with the murder of archaeologist Emmett Connolly have been sent home for the weekend.

A man whose neighbour allowed him to rape her five-year-old daughter repeatedly over a three-year period has been sentenced to 14 years in prison today.

The man charged with the murder of archaeologist Emmett Connolly initially told gardaí in an interview he panicked and stabbed the deceased after a fight but later told them he had stabbed Mr Connolly in a “rage”, a jury has heard.