Convicted killer's sentence extended for crime while out on bail

The man who raped and killed Ballincollig beautician Rachel Kiely was jailed for another eight years today – for carrying out a robbery while out on bail.

Ian Horgan of 4 The Hermitage, Macroom, County Cork, is serving twelve years for killing and raping Rachel Kiely who was out walking her dogs in Ballincollig when she was attacked by Horgan seven years ago.

Horgan was due to be released in September 2010 - allowing for remission.

Today’s eight-year sentence for robbery imposed on Horgan by Judge Con Murphy will commence on that date.

Horgan was out on bail on September 6 2005 when he robbed €1,500 from a post office in West Cork.

A jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court convicted him last week of carrying out a robbery at Clondrohid post office on September 6 2005 and stealing a car from outside the premises.

The jury of nine men and three women could not be told that Horgan was the killer of Rachel Kiely as that would have prejudiced their decision.

Ted Healy and his wife, Mary Healy, were preparing lunch in the kitchen at the back of the shop at Clondrohid post office when they noticed a man standing at the door of the kitchen.

Mr Healy testified: “A man stood in the door with a plastic bag and a type of slash-hook in his hand. He said, ‘Sit down’. I thought it was a joke. That was my first impulse. Then I realised it was serious.”

Ted Healy’s son, Con Healy, arrived at the scene. He testified, “He made me go to the safe and open it. He made me go back to the kitchen and he locked the door of the kitchen.”

The man then got into Con Healy’s car outside and drove off at high speed.

Sergeant Pat Meeney said today that the key evidence linking Horgan to the robbery was DNA evidence linking the accused to a knife found in the stolen car found abandoned nearby.

Judge Con Murphy said that the robbery was the kind of crime that damaged the fabric of a community and had caused devastation in a rural area.

"This was a very serious offence," Judge Cornelius Murphy warned.

"He disregarded the economic loss to the proprietor of the post office and shop and, by walking in the village and by leaving in a stolen car, he damaged the fabric of this rural village," he said.

"A village post office and shop is a social lynchpin of rural and village life," he added.

"Considerable damage has been done to people's confidence," he added.

"There was also a degree of violence because this man was brandishing a bill hook," he said.