Jailed wheelie bin murderer fails in bid to get conviction overturned

A WOMAN jailed for murdering a disabled man and dumping his body in a wheelie bin has failed in a bid to clear her name.

Shauneen Boyle’s lawyers claimed issues around bad character evidence and a co-accused’s perjured account at trial meant her conviction for killing Owen Creaney in Co Armagh three years ago was unsafe.

But the Court of Appeal in Belfast yesterday upheld the guilty verdict after dismissing all grounds of challenge, including submissions that it had been unfair to introduce details of her previous drink-fuelled offences.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said: “The passage of time is modest and the list of convictions demonstrated a clear tendency to resort to violence, associated with the consumption of considerable quantities of alcohol.”

Mr Creaney, a vulnerable 40-year-old, died two days after being beaten repeatedly at a house in Craigavon in July 2014.

His body was then put into a green recycling bin and was discovered later by police.

Last year Boyle (26) and her 30-year-old co-accused Stephen Hughes were both found guilty of his murder.

During their trial the jury heard Mr Creaney was punched, kicked and stamped on at Hughes’ Moyraverty Court home. He sustained more than 60 inju- Verdict upheld: Shauneen Boyle and (right) murder victim Owen Creaney, who suffered more than 60 injuries in the course of a brutal assault ries, including a broken breastbone, 15 fractures to his ribs and bleeding to the brain in what was described as a “savage and merciless attack”.

Following the assault the victim was washed and changed, before being left on a bedroom sofa until he succumbed to his injuries.

Boyle, a mother-of-one from Edenderry Park in Banbridge, and Hughes admitted being in the house with Mr Creaney, but both denied attacking him and instead blamed each other for the violence.

But the prosecution maintained that the pair attacked Mr Creaney together, then attempted a cover-up by painting blood-splattered walls and mopping blood from the floor.

Last December Boyle was jailed for a minimum of 14 years for the murder, while Hughes was ordered to spend at least 15 years behind bars.

Boyle’s legal team made a wide-ranging challenge to the conviction, claiming there were flaws in how bad character evidence had been handled in a socalled “cut-throat” trial where each defendant blamed the other.

Prosecutors countered by describing her as a “conniving, cunning and devious witness”.

Appeal judges were told Boyle was prepared to try to lie her way out of trouble.

As Boyle listened via a prison video link, Sir Declan confirmed her bid to overturn her conviction had failed.