Andrew Carey at the Criminal Courts of Justice, Dublin
THE MAN convicted of the murder of Shane Geoghegan is to remain in prison to serve his life sentence after the three Judge Court of Appeal ruled this week that the conviction was safe.
Barry Doyle (30) with addresses in Portland Row, Dublin and Hyde Road, Limerick has failed in his bid to overturn the conviction after lodging 27 grounds for the appeal.
Shane Geoghegan, the innocent Limerick rugby player who had been out watching a friendly international match earlier that evening, was returning home when a gunman approached and shot him several times just yards from his house in Kilteragh, Dooradoyle on November 9, 2008.
Following a retrial, a jury at the Central Criminal Court found Doyle guilty of the charge and he was given the mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan on February 16, 2012.
In his submission to the Court of Appeal, the 30-year-old father of one claimed that admissions made following more than a dozen Garda interviews were obtained through duress.
Martin O’Rourke SC, said that the welfare of Doyle’s partner and child were used against him after being told that his partner was being held in custody away from their sick child and that Doyle was told that he could “do something about that”.
During the 15th such interview while in garda custody, Doyle admitted that he shot Mr Geoghegan in a case of mistaken identity.
In their ruling, the three judge court of appeal said that all of the appeal “submissions were fully ventilated and carefully considered by the trial judge. The many issues were re-visited in a hearing in this court that occupied two full days of oral argument and which were also explored in comprehensive submissions that were of great assistance to the court.
Concluding the five minute hearing, Mr Justice Sean Ryan said that the “court is satisfied that none of the grounds of appeal can succeed. The trial was satisfactory and the conviction of Mr Doyle was safe.”
