The Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Sligo man Ronnie McManus against his life sentence for the manslaughter of a 14-year-old girl.
Ronald McManus, also known as Ronald Dunbar (47), denied murdering Melissa Mahon between September 14th and 30th, 2006.
However, he was jailed for life by Mr Justice Barry White after being found guilty of her manslaughter by a Central Criminal Court jury following a 25-day trial in May 2009.
McManus’s trial heard that he strangled the 14-year-old and dumped her body in a river in Co Sligo. The girl had been in the care of the State, living voluntarily at a care home in Sligo.
In his appeal, his lawyers contended the conviction was too severe and should be set aside on grounds including that original trial judge Mr Justice Barry White had shown evidence of bias against McManus.
He also claimed the judge erred by agreeing with the prosecution that the offence was at the high end of the scale when the DPP had adduced no evidence that any kind of serious violence was inflicted on Melissa nor were there any signs of injuries to her.
It was further claimed Mr Justice White erred by placing excessive weight on McManus’s prior convictions, on the issue of the disposal of Melissa’s body, and in the manner in which the judge treated the State’s inability to establish Melissa’s cause of death.
The DPP opposed the appeal and argued the life sentence should remain in place.
At the Four Courts this morning the three-judge court - comprised of Ms Justice Fidelma Macken presiding sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe - ruled Mr Justice White had imposed an appropriate sentence in the circumstances and dismissed all grounds of the appeal against sentence.
Delivering the Court of Criminal Appeal's judgment, Ms Justice Macken said the sentencing judge did not commit any error in principle in structuring a sentence which the maximum available in respect of the verdict of manslaughter.
The court said the trial judge in this case “was alert to the fact that the imposition of a life sentence following a verdict of manslaughter is only appropriate in rare and exceptional circumstances".
Mr Justice White, the Court of Criminal Appeal held, was perfectly entitled in this case, which involved “extremely serious,” events and where these was an absence of any mitigating factors, to impose a life sentence on McManus.
The court noted that Melissa was a young, exceptionally vulnerable and fragile girl aged 14 when she died. McManus - then aged 42 - had set himself up as a father figure to Melissa and was a physically strong man who kept an interest in keeping fit
The Court of Criminal Appeal had previously ruled that McManus’s conviction for killing Melissa was safe, and had dismissed his claims that he did not get a fair trial.
McManus was not present in court this morning.