Drogheda party death: Pair to be sentenced for violent disorder

A mother of three and a 19-year-old who were cleared of murdering a man at a 2007 Christmas party, are to be sentenced for violent disorder in connection with the death on Thursday morning next.

Louise Wall (aged 22) and her co-accused, Michael Cruise, went on trial for the murder of Darren McKeown last July, but the State's case against them collapsed when the trial judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict them.

It followed evidence that the principle cause of Mr McKeown's death was a head injury caused when he fell backwards and banged his head off the ground, after being pushed by a youth who was not on trial before the court.

Wall and Cruise had denied murdering 29-year-old Mr McKeown, who worked as a barber, at a Christmas Day party in the Rowan Heights estate in Drogheda in 2007.

Cruise, of Cranmore Clogherhead Co. Louth, and Wall of Donore Avenue, Ballsgrove in Drogheda, both pleaded guilty to violent disorder however following the collapse of their murder trial.

During the case, the two admitted to kicking Mr McKeown in the head as he lay on the ground following the alcohol and drug-fuelled house party they had all attended together.

Wall also admitted to “stamping on his head and chest” and hitting him with a glass ashtray.

Lawyers for the state told the court that Wall and Cruise were part of a larger group who subjected Mr McKewon to a “sustained, prolonged and vicious” attack over a period of two hours.

He died three days later in hospital.

Three other youths have been charged with violent disorder in the district courts in connection with the attack.

During their sentence hearing today Mr McKeown's sister, Rachel McKeown, read a victim impact statement on behalf of her family, saying they wished to express the ”sorrow, anguish and pain” they still felt three years after Darren's sudden and tragic death.

She said her brother had been a kind and honest person who was loved by family and friends. On the day of his funeral, Darren's father was admitted to a psychiatric hospital she told the court.

“We don't think he will ever be the same again.”

Ms McKeown said her mother had a heart condition, diabetes and depression which they believed had been brought on by her son's death, and was still “heartbroken for her son.”

She said that Darren's birthday, the anniversary of his death and Christmas were all really hard times for the whole family.

Wall's defence counsel, Mr Brendan Grehan SC, asked the court to take into consideration the fact that she had a very significant alcohol problem, had come from a dysfunctional family background and that one of her siblings had been killed by another of her siblings.

He said she only had a IQ of 58 and that her three young children had been taken into care in the weeks before the incident at Rowan Heights.

Mr Roderick O'Hanlon SC for Michael Cruise asked the judge to consider the fact that his client had substance abuse problems and was illiterate.

He also came from a difficult family background, where his mother, who was an alcoholic, had left the family when Cruise was young and he had been taken into care aged five.

The court heard too that he had 31 previous convictions for unlawful possession of drugs, theft and burglary.

Mr Justice McCarthy adjourned sentencing until Thursday morning next.