Quashing Cork woman's murder conviction over warrant wording would be 'absurd', court finds

Appeal court rejected bid by Helen Jones, who was convicted in December 2021 of the murder of her brother Paul Jones, to rule the warrant unlawful based on the specific wording of the oath taken by a detective garda before a district court judge

Helen Jones was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for the murder of her brother Paul Jones.

The Court of Appeal has held that quashing a woman's conviction for murdering her brother following a "family dispute" over their childhood home due to the wording of a search warrant used in the case would be "an absurd triumph of form over substance".

The three-judge court on Thursday rejected a bid by 57-year-old Helen Jones to rule the warrant unlawful based on the specific wording of the oath taken by a detective garda before a district court judge.