Rapist facing sentence for hijacking dies

A convicted rapist who was due to be sentenced yesterday for terrifying a woman and her elderly mother in a knifepoint hijacking at a shopping-centre car park in Cork died on Friday.

Donal Moynihan, aged 29, of Raheen East, Rathmore, Co Kerry, was to have been sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.

However, when the case was called by registrar, Richard O’Connor, the defence barrister, Dermot Sheehan, said: “That man is deceased. He died tragically last Friday. The appropriate order is that it should be struck out.”