Victim's family tell of 'nightmare situation'

The family of a man who was murdered and later found on the banks of the River Shannon, have described how they were plunged “into a nightmare situation”.

Kevin Coughlan (aged 29), of Avondale Drive, Greystones, Limerick had pleaded not guilty to murdering Francis Greene at Steamboat Quay on a date unknown between November 28 and November 29, 2009.

But last December, a jury of 10 men and two women returned a majority verdict of guilty after three hours and 25 minutes of deliberation following a three-week trial at the Central Criminal Court.

The father-of-one, who is now serving a life sentence for the murder, was also found guilty by unanimous verdict of the false imprisonment of Mr Greene between Lower Hartstonge Street and Steamboat Quay in Limerick on November 28, 2009.

Coughlan was also found guilty unanimously of assaulting Roy Finn, a man who was staying with Mr Greene, and of the production of a knife during that assault at Lower Hartstonge Street on 28 November 2009.

The court heard the body of the 47-year-old former general operative was found on a bank of the River Shannon on farming land at Portrine, Co Clare on February 5, 2010.

The court also heard Coughlan had given a motive that Mr Greene was a rapist but Mr Justice McCarthy said the allegation of rape was “squalid and defamatory in nature.”

Maria Greene, a sister-in-law of the deceased, read a victim impact statement to the court on behalf of the family.

“Our family was plunged into a nightmare situation that we would not wish on anyone - the lives we had known before were over and nothing would ever be the same again,” said Ms Greene.

“For the 10 weeks Francie was missing, the guards were concerned for his safety, there were all kinds of rumours in the media and elsewhere, all kinds of suspicions about Francie and what had led to his disappearance.

“We lay awake night after night wondering about Francie. Was he alive somewhere, being held captive, being mistreated or was he in fact dead.

“Desperate for answers, we organised search parties and combed the countryside, fields, rivers, ditches, anywhere we could think of – hoping now that at least we would find a body.

“Finally the news that we had dreaded for so long came, a body had been found and it most likely was Francie.

“His body was identified and the news was given to his heartbroken parents and six brothers.”

Detective Sergeant Kevin McHugh told Mr Paddy McCarthy SC prosecuting, Mr Green was sheltering two homeless people in his home when Coughlan came in and removed him from the flat.

He said Coughlan was known to the gardai for a number of years and had a total of 23 previous convictions arising out of five court appearances.

As well as the life sentence for murder, today Coughlan was given a five-year sentence for the false imprisonment of Mr Greene.

Mr Justice McCarthy handed down a three-year sentence for the production of a knife and a six-month sentence for what the judge described as a “nasty” assault on Mr Finn.

All the sentences are to run concurrently with the term of life imprisonment and backdated to February 20, 2010.