O’Donoghue trial judge ‘wrong on key features’

THE judge who sentenced child killer Wayne O’Donoghue failed to take into account key features of the Corkman’s characteristics and behaviour in deciding how long he should serve in prison, it was claimed in the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was appealing as too lenient the four-year sentence handed down to O’Donoghue, 21, in January this year for the manslaughter of his 11-year-old neighbour, Robert Holohan, by what he claimed was accidental strangling at Midleton, Co Cork in January 2005.

A three-judge panel chaired by Ms Justice Fidelma Macken heard the appeal yesterday but because of court holidays beginning on Monday will not deliver the judgement until the new term begins in October.

During the two-hour hearing, counsel for the DPP Shane Murphy SC, detailed four grounds on which he said there was reason that the sentence should be increased.

He said judge Mr Justice Paul Carney was wrong not to take into account the disparity in age, size and strength between O’Don-oghue and his victim.

O’Donoghue was almost twice the age of Robert and should have shown restraint instead of grabbing the boy in a headlock, even if he was, as O’Donoghue claimed, throwing pebbles at his car. He was also substantially bigger and stronger than the boy and this should have been considered an aggravating factor.

“If it had been an elderly person attacked by a much younger person, that would be an aggravating factor. The converse should equally apply,” Mr Murphy said. He said the fact that Mr Justice Carney did not consider these aggravating factors was “plain wrong”.

“The DPP submits that that is a serious error in principle.”

Mr Murphy also claimed Mr Justice Carney had “misunderstood or mischaracterised” the medical evidence presented to the trial by concluding that Robert’s injuries were “at the horseplay end of the scale”.

Both the State Pathologist and another medical expert had found significant bruising to Robert’s neck, consistent with severe pressure being applied, and O’Donoghue himself had described his grabbing of Robert as “a bit vicious”.

The Judge had also failed to take into account O’Donoghue’s attempts to cover up the killing by hiding Robert’s body in a ditch at Inch Strand where it was not found for eight days.

He had also given O’Donoghue too much credit for voluntarily admitting to the killing, Mr Murphy said, O’Donoghue only revealing what he had done when he felt Gardaí were closing in on him.

Blaise O’Carroll SC, defence counsel for Wayne O’Donoghue, argued, however, that the way Mr Justice Carney had handled the case was “perfection itself”, especially given the unexpected events on sentencing day, when Majella Holohan departed from the agreed victim impact statement to make fresh allegations about O’Donoghue.

He said this was an abuse of the victim impact statement procedure that led to newspaper headlines calling his client a paedophile. The allegations went “straight to the heart of Irish people, blackening him when there was no proof”, he said.