A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court for the murder of his 15-year-old girlfriend in the grounds of a Dominican Convent in Dublin in 1995.
Keith Kelly (23) of Colepark Drive, Ballyfermot was found guilty of the charge that on or about October 31st 1995 in the grounds of the Dominican Convent, Lynch's Lane, Ballyfermot, he murdered Melanie Gleeson (15) of Colepark Road, Ballyfermot.
Kelly had admitted manslaughter in the case but denied murder. The manslaughter plea was not acceptable to the State.
The jury of eight men and four women took just over three hours to unanimously find Kelly guilty of murder. The crime carries an automatic life sentence.
After thanking the jury for their efforts, Mr Justice Patrick Smith then dismissed them.
Throughout the trial Kelly had sat sidelong on the bench, with his back to the family of the deceased at back of the courtroom.
Previously the court heard that Kelly, who was 18 at the time of the crime, admitted that he killed Ms Gleeson in the early hours of the morning of October 31st following a row over another man. The issue before the court was whether or not the defence of provocation was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt.
Mr Paddy McEntee SC, for the defence, told the jury that the evidence in the case is that the crime was "consistent with a frenzied attack" and warranted a verdict of guilty of manslaughter and not murder.
However, prosecution counsel Mr Denis Vaughan-Buckley SC told the jury they could only convict Kelly of murder as opposed to manslaughter if they were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was not provocation in this case.
For the defence of provocation to be satisfied, there needed to be a "sudden and temporary loss of self control rendering the accused so subject to passion so as to make him or her for the moment not master of his mind."
The defence had argued that the attack was so frenzied that the defence of provocation applied.
Ms Gleeson died of "extremely severe" head injuries, "the destruction of the brain stem" coupled with "high velocity injuries consistent with dropping a rock upon the head."
Previously prosecution counsel, Mr Denis Vaughan-Buckley SC told the jury that Kelly had told Gardai he had been seeing Ms Gleeson and they had just had sex in the grounds of the Convent known as the Peace Gardens when the row developed. He said the accused told the Guards that when asked, Ms Gleeson had said she had had sex with someone else but that rumours that she was pregnant by that other man were untrue.
Kelly's statement read that both parties then started calling one another names when "she hit me a clatter across the face. I hit her. I was on my honkers. She was sitting on the grass. There was a stone just beside her and I reached for it. I hit her with the stone across the head, but I'm not sure where."
"I could see blood coming out of her head and then I got the scare. Before hitting her with a stone I had my hand around her neck for a minute."
The statement later said Kelly walked away from Ms Gleeson while she was "still alive" and that he drank a can of cider before disposing of the stone in the nearby river Liffey.
When Ms Gleeson's body was found, it had been partially covered by a coat, but was naked with multiple head injuries. Professor John Harbison had told the court that the cause of death was injuries to the head, with destruction of the brain stem and its severance from the spinal chord, lacerations of the brain and multiple skull fractures.