Victim’s family tell attackers to ‘rot in hell’ after court hearing

A 22-year-old mother of three and a 19-year-old man have been jailed for three years each in connection with the death of a father-of-one, who was violently kicked and beaten at a 2007 Christmas Day party.

The victim's brothers and sisters became visibly upset when the five-year jail terms with two years suspended was handed down, and walked out of the courtroom saying “rot in hell” to his two attackers.

Louise Wall and Michael Cruise had originally gone on trial last July for the murder of Darren McKeown, but the State's case against them collapsed when the trial judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict them of homicide.

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

Wall of Cranmore, Clogherhead Co Louth and Cruise of Donore Avenue, Ballsgrove, Drogheda, had both denied murdering the 29 year old barber at the alcohol and drug-fuelled Christmas Party in the Rowan Heights estate, Drogheda.

Following the trial's collapse they both pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

In their interviews with gardaí, they admitted to kicking Mr McKeown in the head. Wall also admitted to hitting him in the head with a glass ashtray, and stamping on his head and chest when he was lying on the ground outside the house.

Cruise said he gave Mr McKeown, whom he said was his “drinking buddy” two to three kicks in the head.

A number of other youths were also involved in the “prolonged and vicious” attack and three of these are before the district courts in Drogheda.

In handing down sentence, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy described the attack as “demeaning and extreme” and while he said Wall and Cruise were responsible for “significant injuries, not to mention the emotional impact and trauma on the deceased”, they were not responsible for the death.

He said it was important for all concerned to know that “there is no doubt he died in violent and unlawful circumstances, but these two people cannot have the crime attributed to them.”

He said he had taken into consideration the victim impact statement read to the court by Mr McKeown's sister, Rachel McKeown, who described the “sorrow, anguish and pain” they still felt three years after Darren's sudden and tragic death.

She said their parents were suffering from depression and poor health, which her siblings attributed to the death of Darren, a “kind, honest and loving” person.

Mr Justice McCarthy said he also bore in mind the difficulties that Mr McKeown's six year old son will have growing up, but he said he had to balance the fact that Wall and Cruise were “the product of dysfunctional backgrounds”.

He referred to Wall's very low IQ of 58, her alcohol problem and the fact that she was mostly illiterate.

Her three young children were taken into care weeks before the incident. Nevertheless he said, there was evidence of a “hugely explicit kind that she was very violent with the ashtray inside the house and extremely violent outside the house”.

Mr Justice McCarthy said that Cruise was only 17 at the time of the incident, and he would not take into consideration his 31 convictions at the time for drugs possession and theft.

But he would consider the fact that Cruise had lived most of his life on the streets, starting to drink when he was 10 and take cocaine when he was 13, having come from a broken family background.

Psychiatric reports stated Cruise had an intellectual disability and showed very limited emotion or remorse for the offence he'd committed.

Having regard to those mitigating factors, Mr Justice McCarthy said he felt it appropriate to jail both for three years each in the hope that time in jail would benefit the two, whom he said lived “disorderly lives”.

The McKeown's were visibly emotional as they gathered outside the courtroom, but said they did not want to comment on the proceedings.

Sentence for Wall and Cruise were backdated to April 2010 and October.