Expert matched semen sample to Wayne, then changed his mind
Professor Jonathan Whitaker, from the Wetherby Forensic Science Facility in West Yorkshire, examined a trace sample taken from Robert's hand after his body was discovered dumped near Inch Strand on January 12 last year.
It was on the basis of this forensic analysis, together with the autopsy findings of State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy, that the charge against Wayne O'Donoghue was upgraded from manslaughter to murder.
However, semen traces found on a bath mat upon which Robert's body had been lying in O'Donoghue's house were subsequently sent for testing and the same forensic expert found this semen was not Wayne's.
"The semen on the bath mat wasn't Wayne's but was so alike that it threw doubt on the first sample,'' a senior garda source said.
On this basis, the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled that there could have been "cross transfer" between semen on the mat in the bathroom of O'Donoghue's house and semen on Robert's body. Therefore, the DPP ruled the semen evidence was inadmissible.
The DPP, following both forensic examinations, clearly decided this was not evidence of sufficient reliability to be allowed go to the jury.
There was not sufficient clarity as to either the source of the semen or the means by which the semen sample came to be on Robert's body.
This is why the jury in the Wayne O'Donoghue murder trial never heard evidence of semen being found on the body.
"The initial report found there was a one-in-77 million chance that it was anyone else's semen other than Wayne's.
"The semen found on a mat on which Robert had been lying was tested afterwards and was not Wayne's. The DPP said there could have been cross transfer and on that basis the defence would be able to get it ruled out,'' a source said.
The jury accepted 21-year-old O'Donoghue's contention that he had accidentally killed Robert, 11, when he lost his temper with the boy for throwing stones at the car.
In explosive evidence heard at the sentencing hearing in Ennis yesterday, Robert's mother, Majella, revealed:
Semen had been found on the body.
There was no forensic evidence that stones had hit the car.
Robert's mobile phone had been wiped clean of fingerprints.
Images had been deleted from Robert's camera phone.
Wayne had once contacted Robert at 6am.
Robert was in O'Donoghue's bedroom at 7.30am on December 28, a week before Wayne killed him, when he was supposed to have been on a sleepover in a friend's house. Later that morning, Robert made a 999 call from his mobile phone.
"What was Robert doing in Wayne's bedroom at 7.30am when he was supposed to have been on a sleepover?" Majella Holohan asked in her victim impact statement yesterday.
She also asked why his two runners were off when his body was discovered.
Speaking in court before O'Donoghue was sentenced to four years for manslaughter, Majella Holohan said: "Whatever happens here today, even if we do move home, even if we do leave the country, there is no place to hide from this nightmare. This is the situation we face every day."
O'Donoghue, from Ballyedmond, Midleton, Co Cork, was found not guilty of the murder of Robert Holohan, but guilty of his manslaughter by a jury in Cork last month.
Dressed in a black suit, white shirt with a criss-cross navy tie, O'Donoghue kept his eyes fixed on the floor as Mrs Holohan delivered her victim impact statement.
Wayne O'Donoghue's solicitor, Frank Buttimer, said his client totally denied he was responsible for the semen found on Robert Holohan's body.
"Wayne denies any impropriety of any kind whatsoever with regard to that. I repeat, all relevant evidence was led by the prosecution in this particular trial. The trial was conducted quite properly."
Speaking on the steps of Ennis courthouse just minutes after the sentencing, Mr Buttimer said: "The suggestion is there that there was certain evidence not led by the prosecution. Insofar as the defence is concerned, all relevant evidence available to the prosecution was led, and indeed was led properly by the prosecution.
"The defence is of the view, and confirms, that nothing relevant was withheld or concealed from the jury in any fashion whatsoever or indeed deemed inadmissible by His Honour Judge Paul Carney during his conduct of the trial."
O'Donoghue was relieved at the sentence. "He accepts the penalty of the court. I believe his family are relieved, firstly that the proceedings are over, and I believe that they are satisfied that the sentence is a balanced and fair sentence.
"He (Wayne) understands that there is a high degree of emotion and, other than that, those matters are for the Holohans to deal with.
"He and his family repeat an expression of sympathy for Mark and Majella Holohan and their family."
In addition to ruling the semen evidence as inadmissible, the Irish Examiner also understands two charges of concealing the body, and of withholding information were not proceeded with.
This was despite O'Donoghue denying any knowledge of Robert's whereabouts or death in three garda interviews conducted prior to his final admission of guilt on January 16, the day after Robert was buried.
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