A Central Criminal Court jury has convicted a mother-of-five of agreeing to "a ruse" in which her daughter disguised herself as her grandmother, who had been bludgeoned to death, in order to conceal the murder.
The deceased's daughter Louise O'Connor (41) was on Thursday found guilty of impeding the apprehension or prosecution of Kieran Greene (35), knowing or believing him to have murdered her mother Patricia O'Connor (61) on May 29, 2017.
The jury accepted the State's case that Louise had agreed to or acquiesced in her daughter Stephanie O'Connor (22) disguising herself as Mrs O'Connor at Mountainview Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 on May 29, 2017 in order to conceal the fact that Patricia O'Connor was dead.
They found Louise was an "integral part" of the charade and had acted in support of her daughter Stephanie.
Louise O'Connor, of Millmount Court, Dundrum Road, Dublin 14 was charged with impeding the apprehension or prosecution of Greene, knowing or believing him to have committed an arrestable offence, to wit the murder of Mrs O'Connor on May 29, 2017.
She had pleaded not guilty.
Stephanie O'Connor was yesterday found guilty of dressing up as her grandmother and pretending she had "stormed out of the house" on the night, in "a ruse" to cover up the murder.
The jury yesterday accepted the State's case that Stephanie had entered into "a charade" by disguising herself as her grandmother to create "an indelible record" on CCTV footage that the former hospital cleaner was actually "alive and well" and had walked out of the house at 9.34pm that night.
In her closing speech, senior counsel Roisin Lacey said this was done in case it was needed to bolster any statements to anyone who was legitimately looking for Mrs O'Connor or if she was reported as a missing person down the line.
Father-of-three Greene has been found guilty of murdering retired hospital worker Mrs O'Connor and inflicting "catastrophic injuries" on her in a sustained attack, which lasted up to 20 minutes and took place in the bathroom of her Rathfarnham home.
The jurors took ten hours and 25 minutes to come to their unanimous verdict in Louise O'Connor's case.
