Youth jailed for life for Cork murder

Ian Horgan, a Cork youth on trial for the rape and murder of 22-year-old beautician Rachel Kiely, has been convicted of her rape and murder by a Central Criminal Court jury and jailed for life.

Horgan, who at the age of 16, accosted Ms Kiely as she was out speed-walking with her dogs in a park in Ballincollig, had denied the crimes.

After a 26-day trial over seven weeks, a jury of five women and seven men took four hours and 40 minutes to find Horgan, of Inishmore Square, Ballincollig, Co Cork, guilty of the rape and murder of Ms Kiely (22) at the Regional Park, Ballincollig, Co Cork on October 26, 2000.

The jury reached a majority verdict of 10 to 2 on both charges just under an hour after trial judge Mr Justice Paul Butler directed them that a majority verdict was now open to them.

Mr Justice Paul Butler sentenced Horgan to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for the murder and put back sentencing on the rape charge to later this year.

The case hinged on DNA and fibre evidence and it involved one of the strongest tests of DNA evidence yet heard in an Irish court.

State pathologist Dr John Harbison found that Rachael Kiely was manually strangled after she was raped. A post-mortem showed "more than one compression of the neck" and "ample evidence" of violence to it, indicating an intention to kill, the pathologist said.

Dr Harbison believed that Rachel tried to escape her attacker by running behind the ruins of an old house in the park. Her body was found about 25 metres from the ruin, partially concealed with ferns and briars.