GUILTY OF HIDING THE MURDER OF HER OWN MOTHER
O’connor convicted over concocting ‘ruse’ to conceal death of tragic pat
LOUISE O’connor helped conceal the murder of her own mother after she had been bludgeoned to death in the bathroom of the family home, a jury has found.
The 41-year-old was yesterday convicted of concocting “a ruse” with her daughter Stephanie to hide the fact Patricia O’connor was murdered.
The pair have now both been found guilty of helping to cover for Louise’s then boyfriend Kieran Greene after he had beaten the 61-year-old to death.
They are convicted of impeding the prosecution of the 34-year-old who was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering Mrs O’connor by inflicting “catastrophic” head injuries in a sustained 20-minute assault.
He told gardai he attacked her with a hurl in self defence before burying her body in a shallow grave and later digging it up and dismembering it.
The mutilated remains of the retired hospital worker were found in 15 parts scattered across nine locations in a 30km stretch of the Wicklow mountains.
A jury of six men and five women will resume deliberations today in relation to the fourth accused, Louise O’connor’s former partner Keith Johnston, who denies helping the killer buy the tools used to dispose of the body.
After more than 10 hours of discussion the jurors yesterday decided that Louise O’connor agreed to a “ruse” in which her
Keith Johnston and Stephanie O’connor 22-year-old daughter disguised herself as her grandmother and stormed out of the house in Mountainview Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin, on May 29, 2017, carrying a suitcase.
The court heard the charade was to provide a backstory when the gran had to be reported missing.
But Patricia O’connor was already lying dead inside the modest family home, prosecutors stated.
A lengthy trial has heard the murder took place amid tensions in the crowded, four-bedroom property where Patricia O’connor lived alongside her husband Gus, their daughter Louise O’connor and her partner Greene, their three young children as well as Louise’s two children with Johnston.
The jury accepted the State’s case that Louise and Stephanie – both of Millmount court, Dundrum Road, Dublin, – entered into “a charade” to create