Man appeals conviction for rape and murder of girl

A MAN has begun his appeal against his conviction for the murder of a schoolgirl on a remote beach near Carraroe, Co Galway, in December 1998.

Six years ago, John “Demesne” McDonagh, aged 33, a builder’s labourer, of The Demesne, Keeraunbeg, Carraroe, Connemara, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of the rape and murder of Siobhán Hynes, then aged 17, of Sconse, Lettermore, Connemara, at Tismeain beach, in the townland of Keeraunbeg, in the early hours of December 6, 1998.

At the Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) in Dublin yesterday, Counsel for McDonagh, Timothy O’Leary SC, made an application for leave to introduce new evidence, which he said “goes to the core of the case”.

He said this new material was contained in an independent scientific report which counters the State’s forensic evidence, which placed the deceased girl in McDonagh’s car.

At the trial, Dr Louise McKenna, of the State Forensic Science Laboratory, said fibres were found on the jumper McDonagh wore that night which matched Ms Hynes’s blue fleece jacket and wine acrylic jumper.

Fibres from the fleece and the wine jumper were also found in the front passenger seat of McDonagh’s car and fibres from his red fluffy car-seat cover matched two red fibres found on Ms Hynes’s clothes.

In 2001, Dr McKenna had told the central criminal court the fibres lent “very strong support to the proposition that Siobhán Hynes was in contact with John McDonagh’s jumper and strong support for her being in his car.”

Mr O’Leary said a new report suggested the transfer of fibres in this case was “secondary” and that the contact between the parties was “very light.”

Counsel said his client wished to call the scientist who complied a subsequent report dealing with the transfer of fibres because “it was fundamental to the case.”

Mr O’Leary said if the CCA accepted this new evidence, it must “open the prospect” the conviction against his client was “unsafe.”

Counsel said the appeal was also based on the grounds the jury had not been properly charged in relation to circumstantial evidence and that the transcript of the trial was not accurate because there were no written records of evidence given in Irish.

McDonagh and two or three other witnesses had given their evidence in Irish.

In opposing the appeal, Counsel for the DPP Denis Vaughan Buckley said the State was opposed to new evidence being introduced. The issue of secondary transfer of fibres had been dealt with at the original trial and was not cross-examined by McDonagh’s then legal team. He said Dr McKenna was standing over her original report.

Counsel said the scientist who complied the independent report accepted there was “some contact” between McDonagh and the deceased which would have allowed for the transfer of fibres, whereas McDonagh had denied having any contact with Ms Hynes.

Mr Vaughan Buckley said the charge to the jury was “extremely fair”.

He said an experienced translator had been available at the trial and, to the best of his knowledge, the stenographer was also fluent in Irish.

The appeal, which is being heard by Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Daniel Herbert, continues today.

In 2001, at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, a jury of nine women and three men returned unanimous verdicts of guilty of murder and guilty of rape with an object. A total of 146 witnesses gave evidence during the 28-day trial.