Noel Long launches bid to overturn his conviction for murdering Cork woman 45 years ago
Noel Long of Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork, pictured during his trial in 2023. He was convicted of murdering 54-year-old Nora Sheehan between June 6 and 12, 1981, at an unknown place within the State. File picture: Paddy Cummins
Cold case killer Noel Long has launched a bid to overturn his conviction for murdering vulnerable Cork woman Nora Sheehan 45 years ago, arguing there was a prejudicial delay in bringing the case and that DNA evidence should not have gone before the jury.
In August 2023, a jury unanimously accepted the prosecution case that Long, who has a 1972 conviction for sexual offending, was guilty of murder.
The trial heard evidence that a partial DNA profile generated from semen found in the body of Mrs Sheehan and preserved for decades had matched DNA found on clothing taken from Long in 2021.
The jury agreed with the State's case that the evidence in the trial all pointed to the "inescapable conclusion" that the mother of three had met her death in June 1981 at the hands of Long, who is now 77.
There was also evidence that Long had been in the same area as Mrs Sheehan when she went missing, that fibres recovered from the victim matched those taken from the carpeting of Long's car and that paint fragments removed from the victim's clothing also matched paint taken from the same vehicle.
Long, a former British Army soldier with an address at Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork had pleaded not guilty to murdering 54-year-old Mrs Sheehan between June 6 and June 12, 1981 at an unknown place within the State.
Her naked and bruised body was found by forestry workers at The Viewing Point, Shippool Woods in Cork six days after she went missing.
Long has 31 previous convictions that span 50 years from 1966 to 2016; 27 of those are for offences committed in Ireland and four are in the UK. These include six counts for common assault, four counts for burglary and a large number of road traffic convictions.
Moving to appeal Long's murder conviction in the Court of Appeal, Michael Delaney SC said the grounds of appeal — which is to be heard over three days — could be grouped under three headings.
Mr Delaney said the first category concerned the ruling of the trial judge on the admissibility of trace and DNA evidence, which was subject to a pre-trial hearing in June 2023.
The second category related to "delay" and an application made at the end of the prosecution case due to the "inordinate lapse of time" between the date of the offence and the trial. Counsel said this ground also relates to the culpability of prosecution authorities both in relation to the delay itself and also to the loss of virtually all of the physical exhibits in the case. This application was refused by the trial judge in July 2023.
The third issue, counsel submitted, concerns the trial judge's refusal to withdraw the charge from the jury, as well as various grounds of appeal in relation to how the jury was charged by the judge.
Opening the appeal, Mr Delaney submitted that it was unlawful to hold Long for questioning on the death of Ms Sheehan and to seize and examine his car whilst arresting him on June 16, 1981 under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939.
It is also the appellant's case that the arrest was an abuse by gardaí of this section 30 power of arrest.
During the pre-trial hearing, retired Inspector Matthew Thorne (91) said that he had arrested Long for the murder of Mrs Sheehan, although Section 30 would not permit such an arrest.
Mr Delaney said there was an "uncritical acceptance" by the trial judge of Mr Thorne's evidence, where he had claimed he had a power under Section 30 to arrest Long for murder. Mr Delaney said:
Counsel argued that that the results of the examination of Long's car and a blood sample taken from him flowed from a "deliberate and conscious breach" of the appellant's constitutional rights and thus the later search warrant, issued by the District Court on November 29, 2021 and grounded on this information, was invalid and of no legal effect.
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, with senior counsel Brendan Grehan, submitted that the trial judge had correctly admitted the DNA and other evidence, regardless of what had happened at the time of the 1981 arrest.
The three-day hearing continues on Tuesday before the President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice John Edwards, who sat with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Tara Burns.
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