A “remorseless” killer beat his friend to death with a hammer and left him wrapped in carpet underlay in a dog pen in his back garden, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
When gardaí found Shane Knott’s body in the back garden of Padraig Delaney’s home, the deceased was unrecognisable and had to be identified through his DNA.
A jury in Tullamore found Delaney (44) guilty of murder earlier this year, rejecting his claim that he acted in self-defence.
Delaney, of The Lane, Eustace Demesne, Naas, Co Kildare had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Shane Knott (37) at Delaney’s home between April 3rd and April 14th, 2024.
The trial heard that Delaney’s brother, Tadhg Delaney, was murdered in Tallaght in November 2023. Nobody has been charged with his murder, and the investigation is ongoing.
Delaney told gardaí that he believed the Kinahan crime organisation was involved in his brother’s murder and had sent Mr Knott to kill him.
Sentencing Delaney (44) to life imprisonment on Monday, Mr Justice Paul Burns described Delaney’s claims that he acted in self-defence as a “self-serving fabrication” which was rightly rejected by the jury.
In a victim impact statement, the deceased’s mother, Catherine Fitzsimons, said her son was subjected to “deliberate and devastating violence at the hands of a man he once called his friend.”
She said she had twice reported her son missing in April 2023, not knowing he was already dead. He was, she said: “Left alone, hidden away, denied dignity even in death.”
She said she first heard confirmation that the body found at Delaney’s home was her son through a media report. “Not from a knock on the door or a phone call but from a news article; that moment was indescribably cruel,” she said.
Her son’s injuries were so severe that she was not allowed to see his face. Denied the right to say goodbye, she said she will never forget holding her son’s “cold hand” while the rest of his body was covered with a body bag.
She said Delaney has offered no apology or sign of remorse and put the family through the pain of a trial in which they had to relive her son’s final hours “moment by moment”.
Mr Knott, she said, was “far from perfect”, but he was deeply loved and a “free spirit” who dreamed of starting his life over in America. The family attended his cremation on what should have been his 37th birthday.
Ms Fitzsimons said she no longer lives, but survives. “Each day begins with silence and sorrow, and I ask the questions that will never be answered: Did he know he was alone? Did he feel afraid? Did he suffer? These thoughts are with me every day, they do not fade.”
Inspector Paul O’Reilly told prosecution counsel Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC that Mr Knott lived a “transient life” and on April 3rd, 2024 had been detained at Naas Garda station for a robbery offence. He received station bail and went to Delaney’s house, where he would stay occasionally.
Four days later, Mr Knott’s mother reported her son missing. On April 14th, Delaney told his father there was a body in his back garden. He claimed he had defended himself after Mr Knott attacked him with a pair of scissors.
Delaney’s father alerted gardaí, and they found Mr Knott’s body in the back garden in a dog pen wrapped in carpet underlay. A pathologist’s report confirmed that he suffered multiple head and brain injuries consistent with a violent and sustained attack with a blunt weapon, such as a hammer.
“The entire left side of his face was crushed”, Inspector O’Reilly said.
In Garda interviews, Delaney said he and Mr Knott had been drinking and playing chess on the Tuesday evening and fell asleep. The next morning at about 10 o’clock, he claimed Mr Knott “came at” him with scissors and said: “I’m going to do what I came here for.”
He said he struck Mr Knott in the head with a claw hammer three or four times in self-defence. Inspector O’Reilly said there was no basis for Delaney’s claim that a “high-ranking member of the Kinahan organisation” had sent Mr Knott to kill him.
He said there was also no link between the murder of Delaney’s brother, Tadhg, and Mr Knott’s murder.
Inspector O’Reilly said Delaney is originally from Clondalkin and trained as a cabinet maker. He was homeless for a time and had a history of alcohol and substance abuse. He has previous convictions for intoxication in public, common assault and criminal damage.
Before passing sentence, Mr Justice Burns said Delaney’s accounts of what happened were a “self-serving fabrication” that a jury had rejected. “This was not self-defence, but was murder,” the judge said.
The killing was “particularly brutal” and the treatment of Mr Knott’s body was “callous and disrespectful”.
The judge said Mr Knott was clearly loved and he expressed his condolences to the family.
