‘Whoever strangled Sheola must have intended to kill her’
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.”
The prosecutor turned to the evening of July 13 when Sheola Keaney was out socialising with friends in Cobh, which continued into the early morning of July 14.
“In the small hours she was left, by one of her friends, in the company of the accused. She and her friend had met the accused and Sheola Keaney was last seen chatting to him in a perfectly civil manner.”
Subsequently, Sheola’s friends became concerned for her when they could not get in contact with her during the day of July 14.
“Her mother went to the gardaí in the small hours of the next day (July 15), just after midnight, and a missing person’s report was made.
“A search began in earnest because she had not been seen by any of her friends after the small hours of the morning of July 14.
“We have this young lady who was seen socialising on July 13 into the small hours of July 14 and then we had ... her non-appearance for work on the evening of July 14 and this gives rise to the missing person’s report.
“That in turn sparked off extensive inquiries and searches. This concern proved well-founded because on Sunday, July 16, her body was discovered at around 8pm in a laneway at Newtown, Cobh.”
Earlier, Sheola’s handbag, shoes and jacket had been found in a ditch by volunteer searchers accompanied by the coastguard, he said.
“Further searches took place along that laneway ... and the body was found a relatively short distance away.”
Sheola was wearing just her pants and bra, the jury was told.
Assistant State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a post-mortem, which gave the cause of death as manual strangulation.
“The prosecution will say that there can be no doubt that who did so strangle Sheola must have intended to kill her or cause serious injury. You (the jury) will hear extensive evidence as to the state in which the body was found.
“It is of significance that it would appear from (Sheola’s) back, from what I might call injuries, that she was pushed up with force against a wall and that she was not merely slipping down in circumstances where there was no application of force.
“This is supportive of the proposition as to the manner in which she died.
“Anybody who did this thing — we say it was the accused — must have intended to kill or cause serious injury.
“The investigation was at its commencement and it was found that the body was wrapped in plastic bags of the bin-liner type and in two different colours.
“The lower part of the body was covered in a black refuse sack while the other part was covered in a green-blue refuse sack.”
Gardaí sent the bags off to be tested and also carried out house-to-house inquiries. The accused approached gardaí and admitted seeing Sheola but said he had not seen her since 10am on July 14.
“His contention was that she had gone home with him on the night in question and that she had stayed the night and that she had stayed in his sister’s room and that she had left in the morning at 10am and he had not seen her since.”
During the investigation, Kennedy and others gave gardaí their fingerprints and other voluntary samples for forensic testing, Mr McCarthy said.
“The accused was connected by fingerprint evidence with the black bag.
“Secondly, that this lady was found to have present in her genital area a quantity of semen and that there was also semen on her underclothing.
“It will be possible to show by DNA evidence that this was in fact the semen of the accused.”
The evidence clearly linked the accused and deceased, he said.
“Subsequently he, in the course of garda investigations, elaborated on his initial version of events and changed them. The next version of events he gave when being detained by gardaí was different.
“Yes, he did stay up until 5am or 5.30am chatting to his former girlfriend in his house, that they did in fact sleep in separate bedrooms but in the morning they did have sexual intercourse and left (his house) at around mid-morning and went for a walk to the laneway at Newtown. The distance between his house and the place where the body was found is certainly less than half a kilometre.
“In the course of the journey, the accused admitted that he grabbed the lady from behind with his left arm and that he started to pull his left arm tight with his right arm ... and that he let go as, they fell. That’s his version of events.”
But the prosecution said Kennedy’s version of events was only half the truth, Mr McCarthy said.
While the use of an arm lock may have been part of the force used in the assault, the fact remained that the cause of death was manual strangulation, he said.
The court was then told how Kennedy acted afterwards.
“He accepts or has been seen to accept that he realises she was dead and said he panicked.
“The body is then placed into these two bags ... he says he placed (metal) bars on top of the body and on top of that were placed (garden) cuttings.”
He said nothing could have justified Kennedy’s conduct and that it must follow that the accused intended to kill Ms Keaney.
Mr Justice Paul Carney adjourned the hearing until noon on Tuesday.
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