Clare man gets life for murder of taxi driver

A 54-year-old man has been jailed for life for the murder of a Clare taxi driver in February 2005.

Liam Moloney, a father-of-four, was found hacked-to-death with his trouser pockets pulled outwards inside the gates of an abandoned private estate.

He received 17 'blows' to the head with either a hatchet or meat-cleaver and his throat was slit from side-to-side.

Anthony Kelly, a native of Ruan, Co Clare, with an address at Emlagh na Muck, Emlagh More, Waterville, Killarney, Co Kerry had pleaded not guilty to murdering Liam Moloney (aged 56), outside the village of Ruan, Co Clare, on February 11th 2005.

The defence admitted the killing but claimed Kelly was suffering from a mental disorder at the time.

If the jury accepted Kelly this, they would have had to find him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

However, the jury of five men and seven women took just over four hours to reach their unanimous murder verdict.

Kelly had already pleaded guilty to six other charges including robbing items belonging to the deceased, setting fire to his car and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Mr Justice Paul Carney, in the Central Criminal Court, imposed the mandatory life sentence on Kelly and backdated the sentence to February 25, 2005.

He adjourned sentencing on the other offences until 21st May.

Kelly, who had the book 'I Have a Dream' by King with him throughout the trial, made no reaction as the verdict was read out.

Speaking after the verdict, the victim’s brother, Mr Derry Molony said: “We have strong reservations about the new Criminal Law (Insanity) Act, because when you carry out an atrocity like this, and you can carry it on for 27 months in the premeditation that was here…. We can’t understand how it got to this stage. This was murder with a motive of robbery. And that’s it.”

During the trial the court heard Kelly had lived and worked as a building manager in the US for 30 years.

He married a woman from Paraguay with whom he had two children but the marriage ended when Kelly became addicted to crack-cocaine.

During this period, he faked his own kidnapping in an attempt to extort money from his uncle for which he spent 20 months in prison.

In 2001, he was deported back to Ireland.

A couple of months before the killing, a childhood friend introduced him to Mr Molony and all three men would drink together ‘infrequently.’

Kelly claimed the victim had been making racist remarks which upset him because his wife was from South America but two witnesses gave evidence that Mr Molony had never made any such remarks.

Kelly also told gardaí the thought of killing Mr Molony came to him several times.

At home, he prepared by sharpening a knife, and buying oilskins with which he could conceal his face.

One such attempt the week before the killing failed, when Kelly thought the better of it and stopped himself.

But a week later, Mr Molony picked him up in his taxi, as planned, outside a pub in Barefield, Clare.

He pretended they were going to meet his Swedish girlfriend, whom he had also invented months previously.

On their way, Kelly got Mr Molony to stop the taxi outside Porthouse Estate, close to Ruan.

He pretended being on the phone to his fake girlfriend and claimed hearing voices which told him to carry out the killing.

He said he couldn't resist their commands.

After the killing, Kelly went to Mr Moloney's flat in Ennis and where he found between €500 and €600.

Kelly told gardaí he knew Mr Molony kept money in his flat.

Eight minutes later, he was seen on CCTV leaving.

He then went to the home of a 14-year-old boy, for whom Kelly acted 'like a father'.

This boy told the court he would often spend time with Kelly and that on the night of the killing, Kelly was to collect him so he could spend his mid-term break in his Kerry home.

On their way to Kelly's house, Kelly brought the boy back to Mr Molony's car, which he tried, but failed, to set alight.

The following day, Kelly set fire to clothes he had been wearing and got rid of the axe-head and keys when they went for a drive.

At a beach in Glenbeigh, he told the boy to bury a meat-cleaver, padlock and sunglasses case in a sand-dune.

Kelly also got the boy to clean out his car before he dropped him back at the end of his school holidays.

When gardai arrived with a search warrant at his home on 25th February, Kelly confessed everything after initially denying any involvement.

Gardaí found a bag with a shotgun and notes reading 'waiting for crime scene officer'.

They also found another list of 'resolutions' such as, 'remember John B.' and 'remember Liam Moloney' written on it.

In interviews, he claimed hearing voices telling him to carry out the killing.

Prosecution psychiatrist and director of the Central Mental Hospital, Dr Harry Kennedy, said he believed Kelly had been 'making-up' the voices in an attempt to 'deceive clinicians' so that he could ‘claim mental illness as some sort of excuse.’