Roche found guilty of murder

The family of a young deaf man whose skull was bashed in during an attempted robbery, today said "justice has been done" as his killer was jailed for life after being convicted of murder.

In a majority verdict of 11-1, the jury at the Central Criminal Court found William Roche guilty of murdering 21-year-old John Carroll, whose badly beaten body was found dumped in a lonely country boreen. The accused had given evidence that Mr Carroll's skull was crushed with an iron ratchet "over a lousy few pounds" but blamed another man for killing him.