Appeal hears woman Kieran Greene beat to death subjected him to 'slow-burn provocation'

In cases where a jury is allowed to consider provocation, they can find the accused guilty of manslaughter instead of murder if they find it is reasonably possible that the accused was provoked by the deceased into a sudden and total loss of self-control.

Mrs O'Connor's siblings, friends, work colleagues and her son Richard O'Connor accused Kieran Green (pictured) of "spiteful lies" and said they were hurt by how her character was "cruelly tarnished" by what he said. File picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

A man who beat his partner's mother to death and chopped up and scattered her body around the Dublin and Wicklow mountains may have been subjected to a "slow-burn provocation" similar to that suffered by victims of domestic abuse, a lawyer has told the Court of Appeal.

Kieran Greene's lawyers argued that the jury at his trial should have been allowed to consider that Patricia O'Connor provoked Greene (37) into killing her by assaulting him and threatening his children following years of difficulties between the pair. Mrs O'Connor's siblings, friends, work colleagues and her son Richard O'Connor denied after the trial that she would have said the things Kieran Greene claimed.