A young Cork man who is serving a life sentence for the murder of a beautician, Ms Rachel Kiely, has been jailed for 10 years by Mr Justice Butler at the Central Criminal Court for raping her.
Ian Horgan (18), of Inishmore Square, Ballincollig, was jailed for life on June 18th after he was found guilty by a jury of the rape and murder of Ms Kiely at the Regional Park, Ballincollig, on October 26th, 2000.
His conviction followed a 26-day trial before a jury of five women and seven men. The jury took four hours and 40 minutes to reach its decisions.
The jury reached a majority verdict of 10 to two on both charges about half an hour after Mr Justice Butler directed that a majority verdict was open to it.
Mr Justice Butler sentenced Horgan to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for the murder and put back sentencing on the rape charge until yesterday. Leave to appeal was refused. The judge expressed his sympathy to the family of the deceased.
Horgan, who was 16 and working as a crate assembler at a local packaging company when the offences occurred, accosted Ms Kiely as she was walking her dogs in the park.
The case against him hinged on DNA and fibre evidence assembled by two State forensic scientists, Dr Maureen Smyth and Dr Helen Ramsbottom, which directly linked Horgan to the crime. The DNA in semen recovered from Ms Kiely's person matched DNA in saliva samples taken from Horgan.