Sombre suits match sombre mood in packed courtroom

AT first glance, it could have been a college lecture theatre with its tiered public benches occupied predominantly by spectators in their early 20s - but there the similarity ends.

The setting was courtroom number two of the Central Criminal Court at Cork City Courthouse and it was day five of the Wayne O’Donoghue murder trial.

Just after 10.45am yesterday, the courtroom door was opened and the accused, Wayne O’Donoghue, escorted in. Seated in the dock, flanked by prison officers, he adopted his customary stance - shoulders slouched forward, head bowed. Two rows ahead of him sat Mark and Majella Holohan, parents of Robert, the 11-year-old neighbour Wayne confessed to killing on January 16.