‘Whoever strangled Sheola must have intended to kill her’

Senior prosecuting counsel Patrick McCarthy yesterday opened the case against Thomas Kennedy, who is accused of the murder of Sheola Keaney earlier this year in Cobh, writes Paul Kelly.

IN his opening speech to the jury of seven men and five women, Patrick McCarthy SC said the accused, Thomas Kennedy, age 21, and the deceased, Sheola Keaney, 19, had an 18-month relationship but had split up.

“In May of this year, they had ceased to go out with one another. There does not seem to be any serious issue but they did meet each other socially from time to time and were broadly in the same (social) circles. They would have been on civil terms. They both lived in Cobh and had many friends in common.”