A Co Clare woman sobbed loudly and protested her innocence as she was found guilty of murder yesterday at the Central Criminal Court and sentenced to life.
Deirdre Rose (20), of Clarisford, Killaloe, Co Clare, was found guilty of murdering Mr John Carroll (21), of Mullally Grove, Cappamore, Co Limerick on December 4th, 1998 at Garraun, Ballinahinch, Newport, Co Tipperary. Rose also was found guilty of assaulting Mr Carroll with intent to rob on the same day.
Rose was invited by Mr Justice Carney to say a few words after the verdict. Sobbing from the bench, she said she "killed nobody", was five months pregnant and her baby would be taken into care.
"What evidence have you got I murdered John Carroll? There was nothing I could have done," she called from her seat.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble that happened but I murdered nobody, I robbed nobody. When you're afraid of a man like (a named man) who hurt people - he had an iron bar and was doing this and doing that. I was only 18 years old at the time. My baby is going to grow up with no mother and no father now you have found me guilty of murder. Just think about that now," she said.
In his summing up, Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, prosecuting, said the matter before the court was whether Rose acted as part of a joint enterprise. He said if the jury was "satisfied that the intention of the group was to inflict serious bodily harm on John Carroll and if Deirdre Rose was part of that group and shared that intention, then she [had] the necessary intention for the charge of murder.
"Deirdre Rose participated in that endeavour and encouraged the others as part of that to search his pockets. She said `Mind the blood lads' as they set about killing him."
Mr Leahy said those engaged in a joint enterprise were responsible for the acts of each other.
The jury took just under three hours to find Rose guilty.
Mr Justice Carney said he had "never less understood somebody it has fallen to me to sentence". Ms Rose appeared (in this trial) as an attractive young girl who should have had a full life ahead of her. The evidence was entirely of her authorship and it seemed (she acted) with utter callousness and was totally indifferent to human suffering.
"The only issue in this case was whether she was present at these distressing events as a spectator or as a participant. The jury has answered in this manner. The law leaves me no jurisdiction but to impose a sentence of penal servitude for life."
Rose, in her statements to gardai, admitted telling the men at the scene of the attack to "search the pockets" of Mr Carroll's clothing, Mr Leahy had said. While there was no legal obligation on Rose to intervene, Mr Leahy said her role "goes significantly beyond that of a bystander".
Mr Brendan Grogan SC, defending, argued that at the time, the accused was a "young woman of 18 or 19 and up until she was charged had never been in any trouble". He said that before Mr Carroll was beaten outside the house, Rose had said in her statement that she walked out after him and another man, whom she believed was capable of violence and she "didn't want that to happen".
"When John Carroll was assaulted, (the statement read that Rose) was `standing on the road and calling (on another man) to stop'," Mr Grogan said. Afterwards, in the car when Mr Carroll was beaten further by another man, Rose described the beating and said she was "scared of the violence". Mr Justice Carney ruled that the life sentence was to date from yesterday and that Rose will be sentenced for the assault with intent to rob on July 13th.