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Crimes that have stayed with you for years

12357…16

Comments

  • #202
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    Lundstram wrote: »
    He got 4 and served 3. He didn't mean to kill the boy and he panicked. He later confessed.

    I believe the sentence was just in this case.

    He confessed when they found the body in a ditch after joining the search party.

    Regardless of intent our sentencing is a joke. He took a young boy from his family and got a slap on the wrist.

    He obviously has huge anger issues if he can kill a young lad for throwing stones at his car.


  • #203
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    While O'Donoghue's brutal act on his neighbour Robert turned him into one of the most hated killers in the country, it was his actions after Robert's death that made him truly reviled.

    He strangled the schoolboy to death following an argument at his family home in Ballyedmond, Midleton, Co Cork on January 4, 2005. O'Donoghue insisted that Robert died accidentally after he placed him in a headlock and then caught him by the throat following a confrontation over his refusal to drive the boy to Mc-Donald's for a milk shake.

    After killing the child, the callous killer then drove the body to Inch Strand and dumped his remains in a ditch.

    He wrapped Robert's body in black sacks and later tried to set fire to plastic sheeting.

    Robert's disappearance sparked the biggest missing person hunt in the history of the State.

    Hundreds of worried neighbours spent days combing the countryside outside Midleton looking for the missing child. And in a cold and calculated act, O'Donoghue joined in the search for Robert and even told his mum, Majella, that her son was safe and would be home soon.

    Robert's body was discovered by volunteers on January 12, 2005 following nine days of frantic searching.

    Three days later, as gardai started to close in on him, O'Donoghue confessed his crime to his father Ray.


  • #204
    Lundstram
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,129 ✭✭✭Lundstram


    smelly sock wrote: »
    He confessed when they found the body in a ditch after joining the search party.

    Regardless of intent our sentencing is a joke. He took a young boy from his family and got a slap on the wrist.

    He obviously has huge anger issues if he can kill a young lad for throwing stones at his car.
    He pleaded guilty from the get go, was very remorseful, was a straight A student from a respected family. He was never going to get more than 5 years.

    I posted earlier about a woman bludgeoning her husband to death in Laois with a hammer, she got a suspended sentence because she said he was abusive to her. Why not just leave? Now that’s all kinds of wrong.

    I see you edited your post to add in more detail, I know all about the case. Still a just sentence IMO.


  • #205
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    Lundstram wrote: »
    He pleaded guilty from the get go, was very remorseful, was a straight A student from a respected family. He was never going to get more than 5 years.

    I posted earlier about a woman bludgeoning her husband to death in Laois with a hammer, she got a suspended sentence because she said he was abusive to her. Why not just leave? Now that’s all kinds of wrong.

    While O'Donoghue's brutal act on his neighbour Robert turned him into one of the most hated killers in the country, it was his actions after Robert's death that made him truly reviled.

    He strangled the schoolboy to death following an argument at his family home in Ballyedmond, Midleton, Co Cork on January 4, 2005. O'Donoghue insisted that Robert died accidentally after he placed him in a headlock and then caught him by the throat following a confrontation over his refusal to drive the boy to Mc-Donald's for a milk shake.

    After killing the child, the callous killer then drove the body to Inch Strand and dumped his remains in a ditch.

    He wrapped Robert's body in black sacks and later tried to set fire to plastic sheeting.

    Robert's disappearance sparked the biggest missing person hunt in the history of the State.

    Hundreds of worried neighbours spent days combing the countryside outside Midleton looking for the missing child. And in a cold and calculated act, O'Donoghue joined in the search for Robert and even told his mum, Majella, that her son was safe and would be home soon.

    Robert's body was discovered by volunteers on January 12, 2005 following nine days of frantic searching.

    Three days later, as gardai started to close in on him, O'Donoghue confessed his crime to his father Ray.



    ......yeh he was totally upfront.


  • #206
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,627 ✭✭✭Gamer Bhoy 89


    The Dunblane Massacre. Being a Scot, this was one of the darkest things to happen in our country in a long time. I was only 6 when it happened, and it still creeps me out today.

    The Murder of James Bulger was another one I didn't really know the full story of until I had access to the internet in my teens. I was 2 years old when the murder took place, but I'll always remember a few years later, my mum being very overprotective of me in public, telling me to never stay away from her for more than a second when out and about. She used to tell me there was once a little boy who got taken away from his mummy when they were "at the shops", and used this as an example to set for me in a way to discourage ever walking away from her in town. It worked lol. When I found out exactly what happened years later, I nearly felt sick. I'll never forget the lecture from my mum.

    And obviously 9/11. I know exactly where I was when I found out. I was going home from school when my mate, Quinny, walked by me and shouted back, "did ye hear what happened in New York?!!" and then my mum got me half way down the road to pick me up in the car and said the same thing. "Do you know the twin towers in New York? Two planes crashed into both of them" I remember my mum and my whole family talking about it every single day, and Sky News being the only channel being on all day. I was 12 when it happened.

    One crime that stuck with me in my adult years was that Muslim girl that got shot in Tehran during a peaceful protest in 2009, over the Iranian Presidential election. Now at that point I had seen my fair share of gore sites and shock footage. I'm rather desensitised in a sense, but this one disturbed me in particular and to this day I can't pinpoint why. I actually lost sleep when I saw the footage.


  • #207
    bb1234567
    Registered Users Posts: 5,513 ✭✭✭bb1234567


    Spanish Eyes wrote: »
    This thread has made me realise how easy it is to forget crimes and horrendous ones at that.

    But maybe that's what our minds do, because to keep them there would be awful also.

    So sorry for all the families who lost loved ones in distressing circumstances, and those who cannot locate their loved ones either.

    I was thinking that too. It's awful really, that these people suffered unimaginably horrific deaths , forgotten for so long by most, only to later have their names grace it to a thread such as this, entered into a kind of compeition with others who suffered even more badly in life. (not having a go at OP, I'll admit it is interesting, obviously a lot of people find it to be). I just wonder at times what these people or their loved ones would think of them being discussed by strangers on a platform like this.


  • #208
    hatrickpatrick
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    As far as Irish crimes go, some of the lesser-known incidents in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud still shock me not because of the violence involved but the intentional psychological torture. I heard of one incident in which a kid who was the younger brother of a gang member was surrounded by a crowd on the street who cut his husky into pieces and made him watch. As far as I'm concerned, anyone capable of doing something like that just out of pure sadistic infliction of emotional pain on someone else is the kind of person who belongs in a cell or in the ground. It's one of the reasons I find it so hard to feel sorry for Keane Mulready Woods, who was known locally for killing a woman’s cat and leaving its body on her doorstep just to hurt her.

    Killing someone is one thing. But making someone else watch while you kill their loved one for the purpose of torturing them psychologically is a level of twisted evil I've never been able to get my head around. The idea of that poor young kid probably shouting and roaring for help while his dog was being "carved up with a knife on the footpath" (Irish Times quote) is one of the most sickening things I've come across. I know many will ask why I'm focusing on the death of a pet while so many humans have been killed, but it's the fact that they did it specifically to torment the kid which really makes my blood run cold. That level of calculated evil is just terrifying to me - making someone watch while you kill someone or something they loved. Who the f*ck even thinks of that?


  • #209
    freshpopcorn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,809 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    Can anybody here remember when two Gardai were killed when there car was rammed by a Stolen Mazda sports car driven at high speed on the N11 Sillorgan Dual-Carriageway back in about 2002.
    It stuck with me because it happened very near where my sister lived when she was going to UCD and the fact that two Gardai died.


  • #210
    coinop
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 315 ✭✭coinop


    The Mark Nash case is wild. Read about it here.


    1HwpAp1.jpg

    Some highlights of the report:
    • Nash is believed to be the first person in the history of the State to kill two people in two separate incidents, outside of those involved in terrorist offences.
    • Nash was an only child, born in Mayo in 1973. His mother returned to England after a year and settled in the Bradley area of Huddersfield. (Anchor baby)
    • Nash did not like showering, yet started to take a lot of showers from March 1997; often several times per day.
    • After the murders...He had escaped over fields and broke into two houses, taking clothes in one and a racing bicycle in the other. He cycled to Castlerea, Dunmore and Tuam but was arrested the next day not far from Galway City; his progress hampered by a punctured tyre which he had stopped unsuccessfully to fix several times.


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  • #211
    scudzilla
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,943 ✭✭✭✭scudzilla


    Back in '95 i was working a summer job on the local council, cracking job watering the flowers on the sea front in my home town of Llandudno.

    I was down one end of the promenade and down the craig-y-don end, about 1 1/2 miles away (long promenade) there was a lot of police activity.

    Seen a friend of the family walking past who lived that end so i asked him what was going on, his answer will remain with me to this day....."I found a body this morning"

    He'd been out walking his dog and found the body of a child on the beach, he never really recovered from that day

    A little girl called Sophie Hook was taken from her tent in her back garden where she'd been camping with other kid from the family, she was raped and murdered by a local sicko called 'Mad' Howie Hughes

    I'll forever remember that because it was so close to home.

    I'd see Mad Howie cycling around a lot, always looking for stuff to steal, he had this look about him that scared me


  • #212
    glomar
    Registered Users Posts: 176 ✭✭glomar


    northside rapist from the 1990s ..


  • #213
    SusieBlue
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,029 ✭✭✭SusieBlue


    The Nichola Sweeney case was heartbreaking.
    She was just 19yrs old and was having fun getting ready to go on a night out with her friend at home, when her neighbour broke into her house armed with 2 kitchen knives and chased her around her home before murdering her.
    He also stabbed her friend Sinead O’Leary over 20 times and left her fighting for her life.
    This only happened in 2002 so not that long ago either.

    He was around the same age and had recently been released from rehab, and was high on drugs and alcohol at the time.

    He never offered a motive or showed any remorse, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
    However thanks to our wonderful justice system, he has now been allowed out of prison on multiple occasions on day release due to good behaviour, back to his home near where Nichola’s family and Sinead live.
    Neither Nichola’s family nor Sinead were never even given notice that he would be returning to the immediate area, and they weren’t given the opportunity to object to it either.
    Another prime example of the justice system favouring the needs of a criminal over the needs of the victim and families left behind.
    It was absolutely disgraceful.


  • #214
    coinop
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 315 ✭✭coinop


    Aye, I don’t have much confidence in the Irish justice system. If any of my loved ones suffer at the hands of a criminal I will deal with it myself Padraig McNally style. But that’s probably a topic for another thread.

    Back on topic, the Garlic Man case has always stuck in my head due to the absurdity of it. A businessman sentenced to six years for labeling imported garlic as apples. Pedophiles and murderers get less.


  • #215
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,503 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    Lundstram wrote: »
    He got 4 and served 3. He didn't mean to kill the boy and he panicked. He later confessed.

    I believe the sentence was just in this case.

    I think so too ,he knew the boy for years, horse play that went tragically wrong


  • #216
    Yurt2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,381 ✭✭✭Yurt2


    Christ, that Japanese schoolgirl kidnap / murder case is as dark as it gets. Not only the main perpetrators but the dozens of other men that abused her. What goes wrong with so many people at once that they can all commit such crimes.


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  • #217
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,503 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    smelly sock wrote: »
    While O'Donoghue's brutal act on his neighbour Robert turned him into one of the most hated killers in the country, it was his actions after Robert's death that made him truly reviled.

    He strangled the schoolboy to death following an argument at his family home in Ballyedmond, Midleton, Co Cork on January 4, 2005. O'Donoghue insisted that Robert died accidentally after he placed him in a headlock and then caught him by the throat following a confrontation over his refusal to drive the boy to Mc-Donald's for a milk shake.

    After killing the child, the callous killer then drove the body to Inch Strand and dumped his remains in a ditch.

    He wrapped Robert's body in black sacks and later tried to set fire to plastic sheeting.

    Robert's disappearance sparked the biggest missing person hunt in the history of the State.

    Hundreds of worried neighbours spent days combing the countryside outside Midleton looking for the missing child. And in a cold and calculated act, O'Donoghue joined in the search for Robert and even told his mum, Majella, that her son was safe and would be home soon.

    Robert's body was discovered by volunteers on January 12, 2005 following nine days of frantic searching.

    Three days later, as gardai started to close in on him, O'Donoghue confessed his crime to his father Ray.


    Is that a " copy and paste " from a SUN newspaper article?

    Reads like it , " the callous killer "


  • #218
    Pelezico
    Registered Users Posts: 681 ✭✭✭Pelezico


    A man meets a girl at a wedding and falls madly in love with her. However he does not find out her name and is very sad.

    Two months later he kills the groom. Why?


  • #219
    Sittingpretty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,872 ✭✭✭Sittingpretty


    Raonaid Murray.


  • #220
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    Mad_maxx wrote: »
    Is that a " copy and paste " from a SUN newspaper article?

    Reads like it , " the callous killer "

    Irish times.

    I think it puts clarity on the whole thing. The apologists for O'Donoghue need to remember he tried to burn the little body and only came clean when it was clear he'd been caught.

    His actions after the murder are unforgivable.


  • #221
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,503 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    smelly sock wrote: »
    Irish times.

    I think it puts clarity on the whole thing. The apologists for O'Donoghue need to remember he tried to burn the little body and only came clean when it was clear he'd been caught.

    His actions after the murder are unforgivable.

    Well I only go by what I read at the time and I don't remember that


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  • #222
    FintanMcluskey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,465 ✭✭✭FintanMcluskey


    I always thought the random murders were the most chilling, although obviously the planned ones are just as bad!

    Geffory Evans and John Shaw, fled England for other crimes and became Irelands first serial killers, killed 2 random women, one in Wicklow and one in Mayo.

    Their plan was to kill 1 woman a week, while travelling the country.

    Was some achivement for the Gardai to apprehend them in the mid 1970s.


  • #223
    TCDStudent1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,019 ✭✭✭TCDStudent1


    When I read the thread title, immediately the Manuela Riedo case came to mind. Particularly, the photo of her in the Spanish Arch shortly before her murder. She looked so happy and full of life. It was a crime that could have been prevented. He was out on bail for another offence. Gardai opposed the bail but he was granted bail anyway. He raped a French girl in the area a few weeks previously too - that crime also stays in my memory as I was out in Galway a few nights that week and everybody was talking about that attack.

    Another crime that stays with me was the Mary Shannon one (in Clare?). The leniency of the sentence stands out, the 2 sides traveling home on the same train and the guy flicking a cigarette towards her.


  • #224
    rob316
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,284 ✭✭✭✭rob316


    smelly sock wrote: »
    Irish times.

    I think it puts clarity on the whole thing. The apologists for O'Donoghue need to remember he tried to burn the little body and only came clean when it was clear he'd been caught.

    His actions after the murder are unforgivable.

    The sentence fit, it was tragic the whole thing. He was full of remorse and carries what he did with him for the rest of his life, nothing would of been gained locking him up any longer. He panicked and tried to get away with it but he handed himself in. I read the statement he made, it was just an accident, he even said "he picked up a knife and thought about slashing his own throat after he realized he killed Robert".

    He made a huge mistake the way he tried to cover it up but he just killed his young neighbor. He panicked.


  • #225
    mariaalice
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,615 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    This is possibly because it came out at a certain time in my life.

    A teacher in Cork has an affair with a student a few years go by and he marries and has a baby his marriage is not going well he takes the toddler and hides for two years the chid is hidden away in a remote house and was rarely let out when he is on the verge of being found out he kills the child who is now 3 and kills himself. His former student who is now in her twenties was helping him, that was how he stayed hidden for so long. One of the really upsetting details was how the child was wearing shoes that were too small for her as he was too paranoid to go out and buy shoes in case it gave a clue to his whereabouts.

    Evil, manipulative, and self-righteous.


  • #226
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,256 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    smelly sock wrote: »
    He confessed when they found the body in a ditch after joining the search party.

    Regardless of intent our sentencing is a joke. He took a young boy from his family and got a slap on the wrist.

    He obviously has huge anger issues if he can kill a young lad for throwing stones at his car.

    He came back and tried to set the body in fire at a later date after dumping it. Whatever about his intent to kill his attemats to cover up the crime show him for what he is.


  • #227
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,256 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    mariaalice wrote: »
    This is possibly because it came out at a certain time in my life.

    A teacher in Cork has an affair with a student a few years go by and he marries and has a baby his marriage is not going well he takes the toddler and hides for two years the chid is hidden away in a remote house and was rarely let out when he is on the verge of being found out he kills the child who is now 3 and kills himself. His former student who is now in her twenties was helping him, that was how he stayed hidden for so long. One of the really upsetting details was how the child was wearing shoes that were too small for her as he was too paranoid to go out and buy shoes in case it gave a clue to his whereabouts.

    Evil, manipulative, and self-righteous.

    Crowley I think that fellas name was. An evil conniving scumbag on the level of Alan Hawe and "pillar of the community". I recall the murder was only about a week or so before 9 11 so it got pushed out of the news and public consciousness.


  • #228
    fitzparker
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,204 ✭✭✭fitzparker


    Disappearance of Amy Fitzpatrick in Spain

    This sticks out as it was an Irish girl and wasn't long after Madeline McCann but it never got as much publicity as it.

    It now seems its a forgotten story and years later the step father stabbing the son

    Now the mother is left with 2 children gone.


  • #229
    take everything
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭take everything


    pc7 wrote: »
    Riu Pedro he went missing in Portugal before Madeline McCann. His story was featured on one of the documentaries about Madeline. He has never been found, but his mother visited with Interpol and his images were found amount stuff when they cracked the Wonderland paedophile ring. His mother said some things are worse than death, I can’t even imagine her pain or what happened the little guy. I don’t think that one will leave me, never knowing where he is, but knowing he suffered like that.

    And people wonder if evil people exist.

    Evil people exist and do stuff like this.

    The idea that that this could happen and that this could go undiscovered purely because some people value getting off over the killing of a child is shocking and depressing but unfortunately there are a lot of people like this out there.

    And I find it hard to understand that people balk at accepting it is probably rife in many elites.

    Hence, Epstein.

    Human beings are capable of the most disgusting behaviour and nothing shocks me any more.


  • #230
    TCDStudent1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,019 ✭✭✭TCDStudent1


    mariaalice wrote: »
    This is possibly because it came out at a certain time in my life.

    A teacher in Cork has an affair with a student a few years go by and he marries and has a baby his marriage is not going well he takes the toddler and hides for two years the chid is hidden away in a remote house and was rarely let out when he is on the verge of being found out he kills the child who is now 3 and kills himself. His former student who is now in her twenties was helping him, that was how he stayed hidden for so long. One of the really upsetting details was how the child was wearing shoes that were too small for her as he was too paranoid to go out and buy shoes in case it gave a clue to his whereabouts.

    Evil, manipulative, and self-righteous.


    Don't remember that one at all. Perhaps because of 9 11 as suggested by another poster. This link gives details on what happened the student:

    https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/child-killers-lover-brutalised-in-jail-says-her-father-26007701.html


  • #231
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    rob316 wrote: »
    The sentence fit, it was tragic the whole thing. He was full of remorse and carries what he did with him for the rest of his life, nothing would of been gained locking him up any longer. He panicked and tried to get away with it but he handed himself in. I read the statement he made, it was just an accident, he even said "he picked up a knife and thought about slashing his own throat after he realized he killed Robert".

    He made a huge mistake the way he tried to cover it up but he just killed his young neighbor. He panicked.

    He returned to try and burn the body. He covered the whole thing up and finally confessed when he knew he was about to be caught.

    Nobody outside of the area would remember it apart from his callous and calculated actions trying to cover the act. Serving 3 years for taking the childs life in an accident was probably fair enough. But he should have done a lot longer for the way he tried to burn the body, discarded it in a ditch. That was the real crime.


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  • #232
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,256 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    TCDStudent1 wrote: »
    When I read the thread title, immediately the Manuela Riedo case came to mind. Particularly, the photo of her in the Spanish Arch shortly before her murder. She looked so happy and full of life. It was a crime that could have been prevented. He was out on bail for another offence. Gardai opposed the bail but he was granted bail anyway. He raped a French girl in the area a few weeks previously too - that crime also stays in my memory as I was out in Galway a few nights that week and everybody was talking about that attack.

    Another crime that stays with me was the Mary Shannon one (in Clare?). The leniency of the sentence stands out, the 2 sides traveling home on the same train and the guy flicking a cigarette towards her.

    Manuela Riedos killer was involved in another incident in the late 90s where a man socialising in Galway was beaten to death by a gang of scrotes in a totally random attack. I remember this man's family was taunted in court by "supporters" of those charged.


  • #233
    Padraig Mor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,574 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    smelly sock wrote: »
    He returned to try and burn the body. He covered the whole thing up and finally confessed when he knew he was about to be caught.

    Nobody outside of the area would remember it apart from his callous and calculated actions trying to cover the act. Serving 3 years for taking the childs life in an accident was probably fair enough. But he should have done a lot longer for the way he tried to burn the body, discarded it in a ditch. That was the real crime.

    My recollection from the time - and I am of course reaching back quite a bit - is that O'Donoghue was solely charged with manslaughter and NOT the subsequent coverup attempt (perverting the course of justice?) and was thus sentenced based upon the killing alone and not his subsequent actions. IIRC this point was noted by the judge at the time (perhaps even in criticism of the DPP - I don't remember).


  • #234
    Padraig Mor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,574 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    Muahahaha wrote: »
    I think Graham Dwyers crimes will live long in the memory. Especially following the trial, day after day more shocking details came out. Just when you thought you couldnt be shocked any further it comes out that he enjoyed stabbing women while having sex with them, it was real WTF stuff.

    Then the fact he had gotten away with the murder for around 18 months but cracking it all came down to a Garda getting in a lake to retrieve a bag that contained a set of keys and handcuffs. The keys had a Tesco clubcard fob on the ring which linked them back to Elaine o'Hara. The case would never have been solved without that Garda being so persistent.

    A very common misconception (although I am not downplaying the Garda's persistence). A bizarrely little known facet of the case is that Dwyer was specifically identified to the Gardai as the likely killer shortly after O'Hara's body was found - around the time the final reservoir searches were taking place, Gardai were already quietly removing items from Dwyer's bin to obtain DNA samples. Looking at the case in total, it's clear the person who named Dwyer could be one of only two people - his wife or, far more likely, the 'secret witness' who had been having an ongoing S&M affair with Dwyer and knew of O'Hara and Dwyer (and even met her?).


  • #235
    Sardonicat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,408 ✭✭✭✭Sardonicat


    Padraig Mor wrote: »
    A very common misconception (although I am not downplaying the Garda's persistence). A bizarrely little known facet of the case is that Dwyer was specifically identified to the Gardai as the likely killer shortly after O'Hara's body was found - around the time the final reservoir searches were taking place, Gardai were already quietly removing items from Dwyer's bin to obtain DNA samples. Looking at the case in total, it's clear the person who named Dwyer could be one of only two people - his wife or, far more likely, the 'secret witness' who had been having an ongoing S&M affair with Dwyer and knew of O'Hara and Dwyer (and even met her?).

    Could you post any links to this? I've never heard of this before.


  • #236
    ThewhiteJesus
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,714 ✭✭✭ThewhiteJesus


    smelly sock wrote: »
    While O'Donoghue's brutal act on his neighbour Robert turned him into one of the most hated killers in the country, it was his actions after Robert's death that made him truly reviled.

    He strangled the schoolboy to death following an argument at his family home in Ballyedmond, Midleton, Co Cork on January 4, 2005. O'Donoghue insisted that Robert died accidentally after he placed him in a headlock and then caught him by the throat following a confrontation over his refusal to drive the boy to Mc-Donald's for a milk shake.

    After killing the child, the callous killer then drove the body to Inch Strand and dumped his remains in a ditch.

    He wrapped Robert's body in black sacks and later tried to set fire to plastic sheeting.

    Robert's disappearance sparked the biggest missing person hunt in the history of the State.

    Hundreds of worried neighbours spent days combing the countryside outside Midleton looking for the missing child. And in a cold and calculated act, O'Donoghue joined in the search for Robert and even told his mum, Majella, that her son was safe and would be home soon.

    Robert's body was discovered by volunteers on January 12, 2005 following nine days of frantic searching.

    Three days later, as gardai started to close in on him, O'Donoghue confessed his crime to his father Ray.



    ......yeh he was totally upfront.

    wasn't there semen on his body aswell ?


  • #237
    Hangdogroad
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,256 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    Mad_maxx wrote: »
    Well I only go by what I read at the time and I don't remember that

    It was widely reported at the time that an attempt had been made to burn the body and O Donohoe admitted to it.


  • #238
    Gregor Samsa
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


    ThewhiteJesus wrote: »
    wasn't there semen on his body aswell ?

    Already covered earlier in the thread. It wasn't O'Donoghue's, and there's an explanation as to why it was there that isn't related to his death.

    https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=114272833&postcount=206

    Also, O'Donoghue took libel actions against TV3, The Sunday World and the Evening Hearld over their coverage of the semen, the result of which they all stated that the semen was not his:

    https://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1117/308851-odonoghuew/
    https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-20136127.html


  • #239
    Gregor Samsa
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


    Hangdogroad wrote: »
    It was widely reported at the time that an attempt had been made to burn the body and O Donohoe admitted to it.

    His claim (and it's obviously open to disbelief) was that he felt bad that he had covered Robert's body, and he went back to burn the bags, so that the body would not be so hidden. When he went back, the bags were caught in bushes, and he thought the body was no longer in them. After starting to burn one bag, he realised Robert's body was still in it. The fire went out after 10 seconds, and he left the scene.

    So he admitted to an attempt to burn the bags, but not the body. I personally would have trouble taking that claim at face value.

    Here's his statment in full: https://magill.ie/archive/wayne-odonoghue-story-his-own-words


  • #240
    EmmetSpiceland
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,016 ✭✭✭✭EmmetSpiceland


    The killing of that kid in Palmerstown in the early 70s. Was, allegedly, satanic elements to the crime.

    Killer got a few years and the murder seemed to have been “swept under the carpet”. Again alleged, influence of religious orders in that.

    “It is not blood that makes you Irish but a willingness to be part of the Irish nation” - Thomas Davis



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  • #241
    jay1988
    Registered Users Posts: 560 ✭✭✭jay1988


    fitzparker wrote: »
    Disappearance of Amy Fitzpatrick in Spain

    This sticks out as it was an Irish girl and wasn't long after Madeline McCann but it never got as much publicity as it.

    It now seems its a forgotten story and years later the step father stabbing the son

    Now the mother is left with 2 children gone.

    She has 2 children gone but is still with person who took one (if not both if her kids from her), bizarre situation altogether.


  • #242
    JohnnyFlash
    Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    The Paul Quinn murder resonated with me at the time. He was only 21. He was brought to a shed, and beaten to death by at least 10 men welding iron bars and nailed-studded clubs. They were wearing boiler suits, masks, and surgical gloves. A spike was driven through his face to end it all, after they had broken every bone in his body below his neck.


  • #243
    Edgware
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,874 ✭✭✭Edgware


    Spanish Eyes wrote: »
    This thread has made me realise how easy it is to forget crimes and horrendous ones at that.

    But maybe that's what our minds do, because to keep them there would be awful also.

    So sorry for all the families who lost loved ones in distressing circumstances, and those who cannot locate their loved ones either.

    Its easy to remember incidents such as Darkley, Loughlinisland for the terrible atrocities but there were several others that dont get the same publicity. The Reavey and O Dowd family murders by Loyalists. The murder of three members of the Hanna family by the Provisionals when they blew up their car by mistake.
    In the early 70s the Officials killed people by mistake as part of feuds with the Provos and later the I.N.L.A.


  • #244
    rob316
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,284 ✭✭✭✭rob316


    JohnnyFlash wrote: »
    The Paul Quinn murder resonated with me at the time. He was only 21. He was brought to a shed, and beaten to death by at least 10 men welding iron bars and nailed-studded clubs. They were wearing boiler suits, masks, and surgical gloves. A spike was driven through his face to end it all, after they had broken every bone in his body below his neck.

    Jesus ya the Paul Quinn murder was horrific. He was still alive for hours after before he died in hospital. It wasn't clean like a bullet to the head it was the most excruciating pain you can imagine. All because he punched some IRA honcho.


  • #245
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,688 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    EmmetSpiceland wrote: »
    The killing of that kid in Palmerstown in the early 70s. Was, allegedly, satanic elements to the crime.

    Killer got a few years and the murder seemed to have been “swept under the carpet”. Again alleged, influence of religious orders in that.

    I was literally about to post about that. It is one of the most bizarre murder cases in Ireland yet the vast, vast majority of people have never heard of it due to an alleged cover up by Opus Dei and the Catholic Church. It garnered almost no media attention at the time which given it is comparable to the James Bulger and Robert Holohan cases is pretty unbelievable. What little coveage the murder did get was described in the newspapers as "a tragic accident" rather than one child murdering another. It was like a massive sweeping under the carpet operation between the Catholic Church and the media.

    For those not familiar in 1973 in Palmerstown a 16 year old boy called Lorcan Bale murdered his friend and neighbour 7 year John Horgan and crucified him is in his attic to carry out satanic rituals. In the attic Gardai found an alter, communionn chalices and the 7 year old victim strung up from the rafters. Both the parents of the murderer and victime were devout Catholics with heavy involvement in Opus Dei and the Legion of Mary. Lorcan Bale had also known a priest who gave him a book on Satanic rituals from where he got the idea to carry out the murder.

    This is a long read on it but it is gripping reading, it is real WTF stuff

    https://www.broadsheet.ie/2016/06/22/the-devil-is-in-the-detail/

    There is also a book on the case called The Boy in the Attic by David Malone, would recommend it highly


  • #246
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,503 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    Hangdogroad wrote: »
    It was widely reported at the time that an attempt had been made to burn the body and O Donohoe admitted to it.

    didn't know that?


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  • #247
    J Madone
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 623 ✭✭✭J Madone


    rob316 wrote: »
    The sentence fit, it was tragic the whole thing. He was full of remorse and carries what he did with him for the rest of his life, nothing would of been gained locking him up any longer. He panicked and tried to get away with it but he handed himself in. I read the statement he made, it was just an accident, he even said "he picked up a knife and thought about slashing his own throat after he realized he killed Robert".

    He made a huge mistake the way he tried to cover it up but he just killed his young neighbor. He panicked.
    We will never know the full story, I certainly would not believe a word out of this guys mouth. He lied until he was about to be caught. He was not the victim as some people are trying to portray. Robert is the victim and I feel sorry for his family.


  • #248
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,503 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    rob316 wrote: »
    Jesus ya the Paul Quinn murder was horrific. He was still alive for hours after before he died in hospital. It wasn't clean like a bullet to the head it was the most excruciating pain you can imagine. All because he punched some IRA honcho.

    he drove trucks of laundered diesel to make ends meet ( viewed as honest work in monaghan and south armagh) so no Saint certainly, got in a row with a local IRA chief or perhaps his son

    A murder of barbaric savagery


  • #249
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,688 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Padraig Mor wrote: »
    A very common misconception (although I am not downplaying the Garda's persistence). A bizarrely little known facet of the case is that Dwyer was specifically identified to the Gardai as the likely killer shortly after O'Hara's body was found - around the time the final reservoir searches were taking place, Gardai were already quietly removing items from Dwyer's bin to obtain DNA samples. Looking at the case in total, it's clear the person who named Dwyer could be one of only two people - his wife or, far more likely, the 'secret witness' who had been having an ongoing S&M affair with Dwyer and knew of O'Hara and Dwyer (and even met her?).

    yeah but whatever about Dwyer being a suspect the Garda who found the bag in the reservoir tried and failed to retrieve it on two separate occasions (I think on one of them he was even off duty). He got it on the third attempt and the contents within it cracked the entire case. I think it was just pure persistence of a regular Garda to find out what was in that bag, he wouldnt have known at the time it could be anything to do with Dwyer, its not like he was a detective, just a regualr copper. He could have easily just dismissed it as any bit of rubbish thrown into the reservoir but he didnt.

    Who is the 'secret witness'? I remember at the time there was chatter that one of Dwyers S&M contacts was a female solicitor who was working for the DPP. The rumour was that Gardai found a tape of her having sex with Dwyer but the DPP held this evidence back to protect her career.


  • #250
    flasher0030
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭flasher0030


    Muahahaha wrote: »
    yeah but whatever about Dwyer being a suspect the Garda who found the bag in the reservoir tried and failed to retrieve it on two separate occasions (I think on one of them he was even off duty). He got it on the third attempt and the contents within it cracked the entire case. I think it was just pure persistence of a regular Garda to find out what was in that bag, he wouldnt have known at the time it could be anything to do with Dwyer, its not like he was a detective, just a regualr copper. He could have easily just dismissed it as any bit of rubbish thrown into the reservoir but he didnt.

    Who is the 'secret witness'? I remember at the time there was chatter that one of Dwyers S&M contacts was a female solicitor who was working for the DPP. The rumour was that Gardai found a tape of her having sex with Dwyer but the DPP held this evidence back to protect her career.


    How did he know the bag was so relevant?


  • #251
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,688 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    flasher0030 wrote: »
    How did he know the bag was so relevant?

    Unless Im wrong I dont think he did at the time. I mean there was something like 12 months between Elaine o'Hara going missing and the bag being found. As a regular Garda in a different policing district Im sure he would have been aware of her disappearance but he wasnt a detective actively investigating it. When he tried to retrieve the bag I dont think he ever knew at the time it could all be connected, there had been no evidence of Dwyer being in that remote location in Wicklow.

    It was just some kind of randomness between the water levels being low so the bag could be seen and the Garda being persisitant in getting it out of there. From Dwyers perspective he must be kicking himself in prison for not having got rid of the bag better than he did.


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