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Guilty verdict in McLaughlin
murder
06.03.08
BRIAN Kearney has been
convicted of strangling his 38-year old wife Siobhan
Kearney McLaughlin whose father comes from
Carndonagh.
The jury returned their verdict yesterday by a
majority of 11 to 1 after deliberating for more than
five hours. Fifty-one year old Kearney from
Goatstown was given the mandatory life sentence by
Mr. Justice Barry White. |
Siobhan was the
daughter of Owen McLaughlin from Carndonagh. She was
the devoted mother of a three year old son.
Her body was found by Owen after he had to force her
locked bedroom door in, on the morning of February
28, 2006. She had died as a result of ligature
strangulation.
Following yesterday's verdict, the deceased woman's
sister Aisling said the family were thankful that
Siobhan had got the justice they had hoped for from
the Irish legal system. Reading outside the court
from an emotional victim impact statement she said:
"Our lives have been utterly destroyed by |
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this brutal and
pointless act of savagery. As a very close family,
we are haunted by the fact that we were not able to
help Siobhan that morning, that she was alone in the
last and worst moments of her life, unaware that the
place she felt safest in was, in fact, the most
treacherous." Siobhan's mother Deirdre said the time
since her daughter's killing had been "absolutely
unbearable". She said while she hoped the case would
bring the McLaughlins some closure, there would be
no hope of complete closure from their devastation. |
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