Court dismisses appeal of man who hired garda to kill wife

The CCA has dismissed an application by a man who twice tried to have his estranged wife killed to have an appeal against the severity of his seven-year sentence determined by the Supreme Court.

Today the three-judge court ruled that Patrick Rafferty, who was jailed after being found guilty of hiring an undercover garda to hire his wife, had not raised an important point of law required to be determined by the Supreme Court.

Rafferty, a haulier with an address at Ballina, Co Tipperary, who offered an undercover garda €15,000 to kill his wife by faking a road accident, had appealed the severity of the sentence imposed on him by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court in January 2007.

The CCA rejected that appeal in December 2007 and Rafferty sought to have his case heard by the Supreme Court.

Rafferty (aged 41) had pleaded guilty to soliciting Det Garda Patrick Crowley to murder his wife, Mary Rafferty, on February 7, 2005, at an area between the Five Alleys public house, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Daly's Cross, Castleconnell, Co Limerick.

Today the CCA, with Ms Justice Fidelma Macken presiding and sitting with Mr Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Eamonn De Valera, dismissed Rafferty's application to refer his case to the Supreme Court.