A double rapist was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court last night for the murder of a young prostitute whose body he dumped in the Wicklow mountains. The family of the dead woman wept as the unanimous verdict was passed and called out: "There is a God, there is a God."
Philip Colgan (27) of Crannnagh Castle, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, had denied murdering Ms Layla Brennan (24), of Moorefield Green, Ronanstown, Co Dublin, on March 2nd last year.
Mr Justice Butler extended his sympathies to the family of the deceased, acknowledging that on occasion the evidence had caused them to be "very upset.
"I had to fight back the tears as a result of it," he said.
The jury took just under three hours to reach their unanimous verdict. Colgan showed no emotion as he was automatically sentenced to life imprisonment. He had previously served eight years for the aggravated double rape of a 79year-old woman and a young Spanish student and had been released for just over a year when he murdered Ms Brennan.
In her summing-up, prosecution counsel Ms Maureen Clark SC told the jury Colgan was a "cold, dispassionate, calculating and clever liar", who had employed a "Hallowe'en story, a film script from a horror story" in trying to dupe the jury.
Ms Clark had urged the jury to attach "enormous importance" to the fact that in his first eight statements and memos given to gardai the accused had given details of how Ms Brennan met her death that accorded with the deputy State pathologist's report.
In one statement, the accused said he hit the deceased in the face twice, that she had been stunned and that he had put his hands over her mouth and grabbed her by the throat and squeezed, counsel had said.
Dr Marie Cassidy's post-mortem report found Ms Brennan had bruises around her face that "could have temporarily stunned her", had injuries to her mouth and over her face which could have prevented her making any noise and had "definite asphyxiation signs," the court heard.
Colgan's original statements to gardai, in which he admitted killing Ms Brennan and dumping her body in the Wicklow mountains, "must be the truth because it accords as a mirror image of what Dr Cassidy found," Ms Clark said.