Clare farmer found guilty of murdering law student

A Co Clare farmer who told gardaí he had killed the devil has been found guilty of murdering a law student from Co Clare.

It was the prosecution’s case that 33-year-old Joe Heffernan, of Cappagh Beg, Barefield, Ennis killed 21-year-old Eoin Ryan because he was gay.

The majority guilty verdict was handed down this morning on day three of the jury’s deliberations.

During the trial the court heard Joe Heffernan rang 999 on the day he brutally beat Eoin Ryan and dumped his body in a barrel at his farm in Cappagh Beg.

In the emergency calls he threatened suicide and claimed he had known from the young man’s eyes that he was the devil.

He described the law graduate from Newhall as "a gay" and later claimed to a psychiatrist in the Central Mental Hospital that he was embarrassed because Ryan made a pass at him and he "kind of went along with it".

The two men crossed paths at a bar where Ryan was drinking with two girlfriends – one of whom he texted in the early hours saying "If I die tell my parents I love them".

The 33-year-old is being sentenced today.