Man who went to Garda station to admit 1994 murder is jailed

A man (41), who last year walked in to a Garda station and confessed to killing a woman two decades earlier, has been given a life sentence.

Howard Kelly, of Osprey Apartments, Naas, Co Kildare, yesterday pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Margot Seery (48) at her home in Kenilworth Square, Dublin 6 on or between October 7th- 8th 1994.

Mr Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, told the court this was a “highly unusual case”. He said it was about the death of a woman which was not considered “suspicious” at the time. It came to be investigated as a murder some 20 years later when the accused walked into a Garda station to confess.

Det Insp George McGeary from Terenure Garda station told the court Ms Seery’s body was discovered at 1.30pm on October 8th 1994 in the bedroom of her flat in Kenilworth Square by the property manager.

Mr Grehan said Ms Seery lived in the flat with her daughter who was visiting her father at the time. Ms Seery had been out with a friend and was found fully clothed and lying face down on top of her bed.

Det Insp McGeary agreed that the deceased was fully clothed at the time and rigor mortis had set in. The post mortem found no suspicious circumstances were attached to her death.

“A postmortem was carried out which indicated that the death had been due to asphyxia due to inhalation of vomit caused by alcohol,” said Mr Grehan, adding that it was deemd a case of misadventure.

Gardaí did not consdier the death to be suspicious and Ms Seery was buried at Rathkeale Cemetery in Limerick.

Mr Grehan told the court that on July 22nd 2014, Kelly came into Rathmines Garda station "unannounced" and told gardaí he had killed a woman at Kenilworth Square some 20 years earlier.

Kelly told Garda Gabriel Duffy he and a friend had been on a pub crawl and were approached by two women. He went with one of the women to a house on Kenilworth Square and "there was some intimacy at the time" but this was then retracted, Mr Grehan said.

He said Kelly told gardaí at the time he had “felt threatened” by the woman and killed her by strangling her and then lifted her onto the bed.

After confessing to the murder, Det Insp McGreary and Kelly went to Kenilworth Square in an unmarked Garda car to point out where it had occurred.

“During the drive he pointed out a number of houses on Kenilworth Square as possibilities to where it had occurred,” said Det Insp McGreary.

The court heard Kelly told gardaí he had come forward as he had thoughts of ending things and his children were having nightmares.

Kelly then gave gardaí an interview saying he “strangled” Ms Seery to death with his hands. “I did so intentionally and it was not by accident and I have a heavy heart,” he told them.

Kelly also apologised to gardaí for not coming to them sooner.