Woman to be sentenced for helping killer

A 24-year-old Meath woman will be sentenced next week for helping a killer dispose of the body of a man he had just killed in her home and for cleaning up the crime scene.

Sinéad Geraghty of Parkview, Blackcastle, Navan pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to assisting an offender on May 17, 2009.

Geraghty helped Stephen Penrose to bundle the body of David Sharkey into the boot of his own BMW after Penrose stabbed him to death. Penrose was later found guilty of manslaughter after being tried for murder; he was jailed for nine years.

Detective Garda Shane Curran told Geraghty’s sentencing hearing that Penrose became a suspect after Mr Sharkey’s body was found in the boot of his car in Dunsink Lane in Finglas. Gardaí knew that Penrose had a connection with Geraghty and went to her home.

D Gda Curran said she became distraught and distressed and described her as ‘fearful and troubled’. She volunteered a statement about how Mr Sharkey had died there at the hands of Penrose.

At the instruction of Penrose, she had been in touch with the deceased by text message that day in order to buy heroin from him. She texted Penrose about 3pm to say Mr Sharkey was on his way but he told her to put him off until he was ready for him. He was actually buying a carving knife in Tesco at this time.

She and Penrose were in her apartment at 8.30pm when Mr Sharkey arrived. CCTV footage showed Penrose go outside 20 minutes later and reverse the car to the front door of her apartment. Sharkey was now dead and Geraghty helped Penrose put his body into the boot before Penrose drove it to Dublin.

Later CCTV footage showed Geraghty and Penrose go to waste ground near her apartment. The carving knife was later found there.

Geraghty also admitted cleaning up blood stains in her apartment and disposal of incriminating items.

She told detectives that Penrose had wanted to weigh the heroin in her hall and she had left both men on the stairs to her apartment. She said she was in her sitting room when she heard the victim shout: “You can have it. Just take it.”

She said she ran out and saw Penrose approach him with the knife and Mr Sharkey throw the drugs at him. She asked Penrose what he was doing just before he stabbed his victim.

Penrose told his own trial that he had planned to steal Mr Sharkey’s heroin but the plan went wrong when Mr Sharkey produced a knife and demanded his drugs back.

Geraghty, a drug addict who used to buy drugs from Penrose, had one previous conviction for drug possession. She said in a garda interview that she felt threatened by Penrose.

Mr Sharkey’s parents were in court yesterday. The court heard that his father’s depression had been exacerbated by the killing, that the family was hurt at how his body was treated after his death and at how he’d been portrayed in the trial.

Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, said the crime Geraghty had actually been charged with was impeding the apprehension or prosecution of Penrose. The maximum sentence was 10 years and the DPP considered her crime to be at the mid range for that offence, he said.

Raymond Comyn SC, defending, said his client had an unstable background and poor upbringing with no education or employment chances. He said she wished to apologise to the Sharkey family but knew that would ring hollow.

He pointed to her early admissions and plea and asked for part of her sentence to be suspended "to allow her to rid herself of the millstone that’s got her into the nether regions of the underworld in Navan".

Mr Justice Paul Carney adjourned sentencing for a week.