The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday dismissed an appeal against conviction by a man jailed for the murder of 19-year-old Brian Mulvaney, who was beaten to death after a party in Dublin five years ago.
Brian Willoughby, now aged 26, of Orwell Park, Templeogue, Dublin, is serving a life sentence following his conviction in April 2003 for the murder of Mr Mulvaney.
In the appeal to the three-judge court, lawyers for Willoughby tried to introduce new medical evidence from a retired pathologist, Prof Dermot Hourihane, who followed newspaper reports of the case and then contacted Willoughby's solicitor to express concerns as to the cause of the death of Mr Mulvaney.
In the hours preceding his death, Mr Mulvaney, Willoughby and other youths were at a house party.
It appeared that drink and drugs, including ecstasy, were available at the party.
An initial report from the then State pathologist Dr John Harbison had not referred to the fact that Mr Mulvaney had consumed ecstasy.
At about 1.30 a.m., Willoughby and Mr Mulvaney left the party together to visit a shop, apparently to buy cigarette papers to roll joints of cannabis. They were joined by two others accused in the case and, sometime after 2 a.m., having been lured by the three to a quiet spot, Mr Mulvaney was set upon.
Mr Mulvaney broke away and ran about 100 yards before being caught again, at which point he was repeatedly kicked and beaten to the head and other parts of the body with a piece of timber.
He was found unconscious shortly afterwards in the middle of the roadway. His upper clothing had been torn off. His injuries, particularly around the mouth and nose, had, in Prof Harbison's opinion, resulted in the inhalation of blood into the lungs, leading to death by asphyxiation.
Mr Justice Kearns said the accused's lawyers were keenly aware at the trial of the importance of the issue of causation of death and had 13 months to conduct all necessary inquiries as to the possible role played by the ingestion of ecstasy in terms of causation.
In his evidence to the trial, Prof Harbison did not alter his view as to the cause of death.
The judge said the critical importance of exploring the role, if any, of ecstasy in Mr Mulvaney's death was glaringly obvious from February 2002. Thirteen months had passed before the retrial.
On any view, that was ample time to research the issue exhaustively. There was no suggestion in Prof Hourihane's report that, in forming his opinion, he was bringing to bear any new scientific or medical knowledge which was unavailable at the time of this trial or the previous trial.
The court stressed Prof Hourihane had acted from proper motives.
It said it accepted he had acted as he did from well-intentioned concern to see that no injustice occurred.