Jury finds second man guilty of Kieran Quilligan murder

It comes after the jury reached a unanimous guilty verdict against Niall Long yesterday

Luke Taylor (pictured) has been found guilty of murdering Kieran Quilligan.

28-year-old Luke Taylor has been found guilty of murdering Kieran Quilligan.

The jury returned this unanimous verdict at 12.30 today. It followed five hours and 45 minutes of deliberating which commenced on Wednesday.

Sentencing was adjourned until October 29 when the mandatory life sentence will be imposed on Luke Taylor and on Niall Long, who was found guilty of the same murder yesterday.

There will be an opportunity for family of Kieran Quilligan to present victim impact evidence on Wednesday next.

Luke Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock, Cork, and 33-year-old Niall Long, formerly of St. Michael’s Close, Mahon, Cork, now both stand convicted of the same charge of murder. 

The murder count which each man denied, was that between September 1, 2023, and January 29, 2024, at an unknown location within the state in the District Court area of Cork City they did murder Kieran Quilligan, 47, contrary to Common Law.

Earlier, the jury asked to see the transcript of evidence of a couple who heard a row on the laneway where the deceased was last seen.

The jury also asked on Friday to see a transcript of the evidence of Detective Garda Alan Crowley who found blood traces in the boot of the Toyota Rav 4, driven by Niall Long, which were later found to be a match for the DNA of Kieran Quilligan.

These transcripts were to be handed in to the 10 men and two women of the jury to assist in their deliberations today.

The jury reached a unanimous verdict yesterday finding 33-year-old Niall Long, formerly of St. Michael’s Close, Mahon, Cork, guilty of murder, that on a date between September 1, 2023, and January 29, 2024, at an unknown location within the state in the District Court area of Cork City he did murder Kieran Quilligan, 47, contrary to Common Law.

The prosecution case was that Niall Long had been robbed of his drugs and cash by the late Kieran Quilligan and another man when a drug deal went wrong, and that this robbery was the motive for what happened later that day, September 1, 2023.

The jury began deliberating this morning on the case against 28-year-old Luke Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock, Cork, who faces the same charge of murdering Kieran Quilligan — a charge he denies.

In the course of evidence in the trial — now in its 13th day — the couple who lived near St. Fin Barre’s Place heard men shouting and banging in the laneway at around 9.15pm on September 1, 2023, and called the gardaí.