Estate of man cleared of murder seeks court ruling

The estate of the late Vincent Connell, whose conviction for murdering a young woman in the Wicklow mountains in 1982 was overturned…

The estate of the late Vincent Connell, whose conviction for murdering a young woman in the Wicklow mountains in 1982 was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal, is to seek a a miscarriage-of-justice ruling.

Mr Connell's solicitor and executor of his estate, Mr Greg O'Neill, said he would be seeking a declaration of miscarriage under the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA). It is expected the action will come before the Court of Criminal Appeal for mention within the coming month.

Senior gardai have insisted there will be no reinvestigation of the murder of Patricia Furlong (19), who was strangled after attending the Fraughan Festival at Johnnie Fox's pub at Glencullen in July 1982.

The murder of Ms Furlong appears to have been excluded from the other cases of women missing in the Wicklow-Kildare-Carlow area currently being re-examined.

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The list of missing women includes the American student Ms Annie McCarrick (26), who was last seen alive as she, too, was making her way to the same pub in Glencullen to attend a music session in 1993.

Mr Connell died of a heart attack in March 1998. He had continued to maintain his innocence of the Furlong murder until his death.

He had also taken the precaution of having a sample of his blood taken in an attempt to establish that DNA evidence from the body of Ms Furlong could finally establish his innocence.

However, at the time of his appeal 12 years after the murder evidence was given in court that samples taken from the body had not been saved.

Mr Connell was jailed in December 1991 for Ms Furlong's murder in Glencullen in July 1982. The Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his conviction in April 1995.

However, he was convicted on charges of assaulting four of his former girlfriends between 1978 and 1989. He was given a suspended sentence.

"Mr Connell made an awful lot of mistakes in his life. He was reviled most publicly for whatever wrong he did, but he was demonised to an extent which was quite unprecedented and unjustified," his solicitor, Mr O'Neill, said at the time.

"I am absolutely satisfied, having researched the circumstances of the murder of Patricia Furlong with great thoroughness, that he did not commit her murder."

Before his death Mr Connell, who had lived in Neagh Road, Terenure, Dublin, stated his intention of applying for a certificate declaring that there had been a miscarriage of justice in his case.

He was also going to begin compensation proceedings against the State under the Criminal Procedure Act, 1993.

A similar miscarriage-of-justice declaration was made in March this year in the case of the "Tallaght Two", Mr Joseph Meleady and Mr Joseph Grogan. They were jailed for five years in 1985 for assault on Mr Eamon Gavin and causing malicious damage to his car. Mr O'Neill also acted as solicitor in that case.

This was the first certification granted under the provisions introduced in 1993 after the overturning of a number of controversial convictions.

Mr Meleady and Mr Grogan will now pursue a claim against the State for compensation.

They were convicted of joy-riding in 1984. The case was then the subject of two trials, three hearings before the Court of Criminal Appeal, a Supreme Court hearing, two perjury trials and internal investigations by the gardai, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chief State Solicitor.