DPP awaits appeal decision against O’Donoghue sentence

THE Director of Public Prosecutions will learn next week if his appeal over the leniency of the sentence handed down to child killer Wayne O’Donoghue was successful.

The Court of Criminal Appeal will deliver its judgment on Wednesday next.

O’Donoghue had been charged with murdering his neighbour Robert Holohanat Ballyedmond, Middleton, Cork, on January 4, 2005. He was acquitted by jury in December 2005 but had pleaded guilty to his manslaughter. Mr Justice Paul Carney sentenced the CIT engineering student to four years in jail in January.

The DPP appealed the leniency of the term.

Lawyers for the DPP claimed a number of factors should have been taken into account when sentencing him. Age, strength and size difference between the two were major aspects, they said, and the killing was a violent, dangerous act and not horseplay, as recorded by the trial judge.

O’Donoghue, 21, said he accidentally killed the boy in a row over throwing stones at his car.

The trial heard Robert died from asphyxia due to manual strangulation, which had been caused by minor injuries. The boy’s body was then dumped at Inch Strand.

The DPP also argued that the judge did not take into account the concealment of the killing and of Robert’s body, which prolonged the impact for his family.

During the appeal hearing O’Donoghue’s lawyer Blaise O’Carroll accused the DPP of nitpicking and scraping the barrel. He said the minor elements of the evidence were now being blown out of proportion.