A 20-year-old Cork man has been acquitted of the murder of a 46-year-old woman during a break in at her flat in Cork city centre. Yesterday his co-accused was convicted of the murder of Ms Nora Kiely at Leitrim Street on 15th July 2002.
After deliberating for more than 11 hours, the Central Criminal Court jury found Mr Thomas Penkert (24) not guilty of murder. On a separate count of robbery they both accused not guilty but convicted them of larceny of €70 from Donal Scanell the week before the murder.
Mr Penkert remained largely impassive as the not guilty of murder verdict was read out apart from a brief smile of relief to his solicitor, Mr John Colemen. Ms Kiely's relatives cried in court as the not guilty verdict was read out.
Yesterday, the jury convicted Brian Walsh of murder after just three hours of deliberations. In the Central Criminal Court today Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan imposed the mandatory term of life imprisonment.
Both Penkert and Walsh had earlier pleaded guilty to the theft of less than €20 in cash and jewelry from Ms Kiely from that date.
Nora Kiely was strangled to death and was subjected to a sexual assault during a robbery at her bedsit at Leitrim Street.
The convicted men shared a flat also in the same building on Leitrim St.
Mr Justice O'Donovan exempted the jury from further service for 15 years. He remanded both men in custody for sentence on the larceny counts on 4th May.