Jury finds sixth defendant guilty of man's murder in Kerry graveyard with majority decision
Thomas Dooley was murdered at Rath Cemetery in Tralee during a funeral service there. Picture via Facebook
The last man in the dock at the Tralee graveyard murder trial has been found guilty of murdering 43-year-old Tom Dooley.
42-year-old Daniel Dooley of An Carraigin, Connolly Park, Tralee, County Kerry, declared on his conviction for murder, “On my wife’s grave… I’m an innocent man… Sending a widowman to jail.” A woman’s voice rang out from the back of the courtroom: “It’s in the hands of God.”
Danny Dooley was the last defendant on whom the jury deliberated on what was Day 34 of the trial which started back on June 4.
He was found guilty of murder by a majority 11-1 decision at 3.20pm on Thursday afternoon. Thursday was the fifth day of their deliberations.
Shortly after lunch they returned to court to ask Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring a question. It came after 20 hours and two minutes of deliberating.
“Does our decision have to be unanimous?” they asked. The judge told them that given the amount of time they had been deliberating a verdict of 10-2 or 11-1 would be accepted at that stage although a unanimous decision was preferable.
By 3.20pm the 10 men and two women of the jury were back in the courtroom delivering what was the last of their verdicts after 20 hours and 57 minutes of deliberation.
Daniel Dooley has been found guilty of murdering his cousin. From the outset he pleaded not guilty to murdering Thomas Dooley in the trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork. So all six who went on trial have now been found guilty of the murder they all denied.
29-year-old Michael Dooley, of the halting site, Carrigrohane, Cork, was found guilty of murder by the unanimous decision of the jury on Tuesday afternoon.
Patrick Dooley, 36, from Arbutus Grove, Killarney — brother of the deceased — was found guilty of murder by the jury on Friday, July 19.
The previous day, Thomas Dooley Sr, 43, and his son Thomas Dooley Jr, 21, both from the halting site, Carrigrohane, Cork, and the teenager in the trial were found guilty of murdering father-of-seven, 43-year-old Tom Dooley from Hazelwood Drive, Killarney, at New Rath Cemetery, Rathass, Tralee, on October 5, 2022. Thomas Jr. was additionally found guilty of assault causing harm to the dead man’s widow, Siobhán.
Prosecution senior counsel Dean Kelly said of all six accused: “These are men working together in the business of murdering Thomas Dooley and in the business of escaping. The one thing you can say about Patrick and Danny Dooley is that they are joined at the hip at all times, hand in glove, close together — they are in sync.
"If you are satisfied that Patrick has carried out the murder of his brother the only thing you can say about Danny running directly after him out of the cemetery and into the van is that Danny carried out the murder too. But that is a matter for you.”
Brian McInerney senior counsel for Daniel Dooley said that the prosecution case was like a jigsaw but that: “Only in the middle of the trial that Siobhán Dooley announces, ‘Oh, Danny Dooley was there’… He is not forensically linked to anything, anywhere, so there is another great big hole in the jigsaw picture.”
He said the jigsaw box had a picture on the front but that inside the box were blurred pieces, missing pieces and pieces from another box.
Sentencing will take place on Tuesday, July 30. They were remanded in custody until then when the mandatory life sentence will be imposed.
The judge said that in the past it was customary for sentence to be imposed perfunctorily on conviction but that in more recent years the sentencing tended to be put back for some time to allow the family of the deceased to prepare victim impact evidence.
The teenager who was convicted of murder in this trial will not be sentenced on Tuesday. He was remanded in custody until October 29 for discussion of a legal issue regarding his sentencing.
Before one day of evidence was given, prosecution lawyer Dean Kelly said in his opening speech: “I want you to know this, this was not a fight. If you hear it was a fight it cannot be called a fight. This was not a row. This was not an escalation. It was nothing of the sort. Thomas Dooley was attacked by a group, attacked with a focused ferocity.
"They did exactly what they armed themselves to do — inflict injuries of the most grievous kind, inflict injuries most brazenly in broad daylight, right in front of the deceased man’s four children.
“Thomas Dooley, the deceased, had not offered the slightest provocation. He had not opened his mouth or raised his hand. It was carried out with murderous ferocity and murderous intent.”
Siobhán Dooley will describe on Tuesday how that murder has affected her and her family in the days since October 5, 2022.
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