BRIAN KEARNEY began a life sentence last night after being found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of murdering his wife Siobhán at their home in south Dublin two years ago. Ruadhán Mac Cormaicreports
The jury of eight women and four men took five hours and 24 minutes to reach their verdict by a majority of 11 to one.
The prosecution had argued that Kearney strangled his wife at their home at Knocknashee, Goatstown, on February 28th, 2006 - his 49th birthday - and then tried to fake a suicide by hoisting her over an ensuite bathroom door with a vacuum cleaner flex.
The motive, they said, was that Siobhán's plan to leave her husband would add to his financial pressures.
Mr Justice Barry White had asked that there be "no emotional outbursts or no triumphalist outbursts" after the verdict was delivered and, when it came, just after 3.45pm, a heavy silence hung over the crammed courtroom. Kearney himself stared inscrutably ahead, as those around him began to weep.
Aoife, his daughter from a previous relationship, slumped her head into her father's shoulder and sobbed quietly into the silence.
Just a few yards away, the McLaughlin siblings, their hands linked and heads bowed as they waited for the registrar's words, were themselves in tears.
Owen McLaughlin, the first to find his daughter's body on that February morning two years ago, hugged his wife tightly and dabbed his eye with a tissue. The detectives who worked on the case shook hands with the McLaughlins one by one.
Kearney stood impassively for the final act of this intense 13-day trial, as the judge imposed the mandatory life sentence.
An application from defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC for leave to appeal the conviction was refused by Mr Justice White, but Kearney can remain on legal aid should this refusal be overturned.
After sentencing, the judge refused a request by the McLaughlin family to read a victim impact statement in court, saying the executive had provided for victim impact statements in some cases, but murder was not one of them.
As exhausted-looking jurors made their way out of court, Kearney embraced his daughter before being led from the court by three prison officers.
Outside, the McLaughlins waited until the prison van carrying Kearney left the Four Courts complex before they walked hand-in-hand to speak to journalists. In a chaotic crush, Aisling McLaughlin, Siobhán's sister, said the family's "faith and trust" in the criminal justice system had not been let down.
"Today, Siobhán has got justice, we have got justice and Siobhán's murderer has got justice, and for that we are most thankful," she said in a strong, confident voice.
"Since that day, Tuesday, February 28th, 2006, our lives have been utterly destroyed by this brutal and pointless act of savagery, from which they can not, nor ever will be the same.
"But Siobhán has been with us every day since that day, she has never moved and she continues to live in each one of us . . . Siobhán needs peace now, to sleep peacefully, knowing that everything that can be done has been done."