Ruth Lawrence found guilty of double murder in 2014

The Central Criminal Court jury by a majority verdict of 11-1 agreed with the prosecution case that Lawrence shot and worked 'as a unit' with her boyfriend to murder 32-year-old drug dealer Eoin O'Connor after they had lured him to their home

Ruth Lawrence (pictured) has been found guilty of murdering Anthony Keegan and Eoin O'Connor. File picture: Collins Courts

Eleven years on from when the bodies of two missing Dublin men were found bound and buried in a shallow grave on a lake island in the Midlands, the only person to face trial over their deaths — Ruth Lawrence — has been found guilty of their murders.

The Central Criminal Court jury by a majority verdict of 11-1 agreed with the prosecution case that 46-year-old Lawrence shot and worked "as a unit" with her boyfriend, South African national Neville van der Westhuizen, to murder 32-year-old drug dealer Eoin O'Connor after they had lured him to their home.

The prosecution contended that Anthony Keegan, aged 33, was shot by van der Westhuizen and the jury accepted their argument by a majority verdict of 10-2 that there was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he and Lawrence also acted as a team in that murder and were equally liable for the outcome.

The jury heard that Mr O'Connor sold drugs to van der Westhuizen, who owed the deceased man in the region of €70,000.

The trial heard evidence that Lawrence had asked about taking a boat out on Lough Sheelin — where the deceased's bodies were eventually found — the day before the men were last seen alive.

The prosecution had also told the jury that the key witness's account of an alleged admission by Lawrence to shooting Mr O'Connor was corroborated by pathology evidence.

Lawrence, who did not give evidence in the trial and was never interviewed by gardaí, fled to South Africa in the aftermath of the murders and was extradited back to Ireland in May 2023. The trial heard that while in the Rainbow Nation, she feared she would become a victim of human trafficking and had stayed in women's refuges.

Van der Westhuizen is currently serving a 15-year sentence in Durban, for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping in a separate case. An application to return him to Ireland to face trial will take place when he has finished serving his sentence in South Africa.

Lawrence, who is originally from Clontarf in Dublin but with an address at Patricks Cottage, Ross, Mountnugent in Co Meath had pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Keegan and Mr O'Connor at an unknown location within the State on a date between April 22, 2014 and May 26, 2014, both dates inclusive.

There were three verdicts the jury could return in relation to each of the two murder charges against Lawrence, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of assisting an offender or not guilty. The jury were told by the trial judge that the latter verdict was "theoretical".