Robert’s mother condemns killer for speaking out

THE grieving mother of schoolboy Robert Holohan yesterday reportedly criticised the boy’s killer for speaking of his remorse over the death.

Majella Holohan’s comments came after student Wayne O’Donoghue broke his silence at the weekend over the death.

O’Donoghue told a Sunday newspaper of his lasting sorrow, adding: “I will feel sorry for what I did until the day I die.”

O’Donoghue, of Midleton, County Cork, is serving a four-year jail term after admitting the manslaughter last year of the 11-year-old. He was cleared of murder.

But yesterday, an evening newspaper reported that Ms Holohan criticised O’Donoghue for speaking out in a newspaper but failing to speak at his trial.

Ahead of a court appeal against the length of O’Donoghue’s sentence, Ms Holohan is reported to have said: “He should tell the truth in court [during the sentencing appeal].”

She also referred to her explosive victim impact statement, in which she made a series of allegations against the killer.

“I stand over what I said in court that day; now let him stand over what he has said,” she apparently said.

Ms Holohan said O’Donoghue’s newspaper interview was a shock.

In the Sunday Tribune interview, O’Donoghue countered Ms Holohan’s victim impact statement, denying claims of impropriety between him and her son.

He said: “I can see why Majella Holohan came out with what she said at the time, and I don’t hold anything against her for what she said.

“I have no problem doing my time in here but there is no way there was anything going on between Robert and myself.”