The family of boxing champion Kevin Sheehy cheered, cried and hugged each other yesterday as a man who ran him over repeatedly with his jeep was found guilty of murder.
The Central Criminal Court trial heard that the five times champ fought to get up off the ground after he was first hit but the UK-registered Mitsubishi Shogun ran him over twice again at speed.
The jury agreed with the prosecution’s case that Englishman Logan Jackson had deployed his vehicle as a murder weapon “as sure and as clear” as if it was a gun or a knife.
The 10 jurors took just two hours and 30 minutes to unanimously reject a defence of provocation put forward by Jackson, who had told gardai that he felt “intimidated and provoked” after he claimed “three big fellas” threatened him and his cousin outside a house party.
As soon as the verdict was announced, huge cheers reverberated around the sixth floor of the Criminal Courts of Justice building from the approximately 50 people who could not get inside for the hearing and had gathered outside.
A second cheer went up moments later when the Sheehy family exited the court, as supporters wept and hugged each other.
The defendant, who has “some family connections” in Limerick, claimed that the men had attacked his 4x4 and that one of them had “whacked” his cousin and he had felt scared. However, he also admitted to gardai that he was not under threat when he pulled out in the vehicle and “was angry and drinking” at the time.
The jury accepted the prosecution’s case that Jackson had “thundered” his jeep into the 20-year-old before driving over him three times at speed.
Jackson, 31, of Longford Road, Coventry, England had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to Mr Sheehy’s manslaughter at Hyde Road in Limerick city on July 1, 2019.
The defendant, who has a prosthetic leg, was also found guilty on a second charge of endangerment.
Evidence was given that the boxer and Jackson had “an exchange” moments after leaving a house party where they had gone to celebrate Limerick’s Munster hurling final victory over Tipperary.
The dead man’s cousin Thomas Lysaght had testified that Jackson had his top off outside the party, which Mr Sheehy noticed and joked: “Look at the muscles on that guy.”
Counsel for the DPP Dean Kelly reminded the jury of the pattern of blue fabric marks found on the footpath from Mr Sheehy’s clothing, which told a story “with a directness that words can’t match”. “Imagine hearing of his last moments through the fabrics left on the road,” he added.
In her charge to the jury last Friday, Judge Eileen Creedon told them they must decide if the accused was provoked before he repeatedly ran over Mr Sheehy in his jeep.
Following the verdict, Ms Justice Creedon thanked the jury for the time and attendance, which they gave to the matter.
The judge exempted the five men and five women from jury service for seven years. She will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment to Jackson next Tuesday.
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