(Pictured: Marta Herda. Credit: Collins)

A 30-year-old woman who drove a man who loved her into a deep harbour, where he drowned, must wait to hear the outcome of an appeal against her conviction for murder.

Marta Herda, of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Road, Arklow, Co Wicklow, knew her passenger could not swim when she drove her Volkswagen Passat through the crash barriers at South Quay, Arklow shortly before 6am on March 26, 2013.

Herda had pleaded not guilty to the murder of 31-year-old Hungarian man Csaba Orsos but a jury at the Central Criminal Court found her guilty and she was given ….read more

(Pictured: Marta Herda. Credit: Collins)

A 30-year-old woman who drove a man who loved her into a deep harbour, where he drowned, has opened an appeal against her conviction for murder.

Marta Herda, of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Road, Arklow, Co Wicklow, knew her passenger could not swim when she drove her Volkswagen Passat through the crash barriers at South Quay, Arklow shortly before 6am on March 26, 2013.

Herda had pleaded not guilty to the murder of 31-year-old Hungarian man Csaba Orsos but a jury at the Central Criminal Court found her guilty and she was given the mandatory life sentence by ….read more

A former sports coach jailed for sexually abusing ten teenage boys in the 1980s has been given a date in January to appeal the severity of his sentence.

Bill Kenneally (67), with an address at Summerville Avenue, Waterford City, had pleaded guilty to ten sample counts of indecently assaulting ten boys at various location in Waterford in the 1980s.

Kenneally was originally charged with 70 counts spanning dates in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was sentenced at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court to 14 years and two months imprisonment by Judge Eugene O’Kelly in February 2016.

Kenneally’s lawyers have lodged an appeal against the ….read more

A Dublin man jailed for possessing a hand gun, silencer and ammunition in suspicious circumstances has avoided an increased prison sentence despite an appeal by prosecutors.

Michael Hanney (24), of Marewood Crescent, Ballymun, had pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a 9mm Makarov pistol, a silencer and three rounds of ammunition at St Margaret’s, Ballymun, on July 13, 2015. He also pleaded guilty to possession of an air pistol at his home on May 13, 2015.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Hanney to five years imprisonment with the final two years suspended on July 19, 2016.

The Court of Appeal ….read more

Prosecutors will seek to argue in December that prison sentences imposed on two men for a “fatal burglary” at the home of a 62-year-old were “unduly lenient”.

Cousins Michael Casey (34), with an address at Clonlong Halting Site, Southill, in Limerick and David Casey (22), with an address at Carragh Park, Belcamp, Dublin 17, had pleaded guilty to a series of burglaries, including one at the home of John O’Donoghue at Toomaline, Doon, on August 27, 2015.

Judge Tom O’Donnell sentenced both men at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to four-and-a-half years imprisonment with the final year suspended on December 15, 2016.

The Director ….read more

A man jailed for his role in a violent bookmakers attack has lost an appeal against his conviction on the principal ground of his identification from CCTV footage.

Declan Tynan (27), Vincent Street Flats, Dublin 8, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to violent disorder at Ladbrokes bookmakers in Killinarden, Tallaght on December 13, 2012.

Tynan was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to four years imprisonment with the final year suspended by Judge Patricia Ryan on January 13, 2017.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Tynan was one of three men who burst into the bookmakers on the ….read more

A Kildare man who orally raped an 11-year-old girl during “blindfold games” when he was aged 15 has had his two-year jail term halved on appeal.

The now 24-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, had pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault in a shed at his home in Co. Kildare on dates in October and December 2008.

He also pleaded guilty to oral rape at his home in April 2009 and in a woodland near his home in May 2009.

The Central Criminal Court heard that he would set up blindfold games with the girl during ….read more

A man who dismissed a team of lawyers during his trial for murder and cross-examined his own nephew, faces a retrial following a successful appeal.

Tadgh Butler (36), with an address at Seafield in Tramore, Co Waterford but originally from Kilkenny had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Michael O’Dwyer (25) at that address on January 10, 2014.

Butler dismissed his legal team on day six of his trial for murder and recalled his nephew, Mr Anthony O’Grady, which saw a “radically different version of events put to him” by Butler compared to what had been ….read more

An “IRA bomb-maker” arrested after the discovery of a car bomb in the car park of a Lucan hotel has had his conviction for possessing an explosive substance upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Samuel Devlin (59), from Northern Ireland but with a last address at the ‘Golf Suite’, Finnstown House Hotel and Resort, Lucan, Co Dublin was found guilty by the three-judge Special Criminal Court of possessing the explosive substance (PETN) at the hotel on May 11th, 2014.

The three-week trial heard evidence from members of the Special Detective Unit that Devlin was a bomb maker for the IRA. Evidence ….read more

A man stopped at Dublin Airport with €17,000 worth of cocaine has been spared an increased jail sentence despite an appeal by prosecutors.

Marcus Gantley (23), with an address at Poddle Close, Kimmage, Dublin 12, had pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to obstructing a peace officer, section 2 assault of a garda and two section 15 counts of possession of a controlled drug in separate incidents at various locations in the capital.

He was given an effective three-year-sentence with the final 18 months suspended by Judge Sarah Berkeley on October 3, 2016.

The three-judge Court of Appeal said today that Gantley’s ….read more