The former boyfriend of Sheola Keaney, who was killed in Cobh, Co Cork this summer, has received a mandatory life sentence for her murder.
Thomas Kennedy (21) of Russell Heights, Cobh changed his plea to guilty on the second day of his trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork yesterday.
Kennedy had initially denied murdering Ms Keaney (19) at Cobh between July 14th and 16th last when he was first arraigned last Tuesday.
He reiterated his not guilty plea when the charge was again put to him last Friday, but yesterday he asked to be rearraigned on the single charge and when it was read to him, he pleaded guilty to murder.
Speaking after Mr Justice Paul Carney passed sentence, Ms Kennedy's father, Peter, called on the Government "to provide extra funding to set up specialist units to counsel and train therapists to help with the psychological impact suffered by the bereaved by the family and friends."
He said that he would not let Ms Kennedy be forgotten or to become another murder statistic. "She was everything to me, my whole life," he added.
Ms Keaney had been going out with Kennedy for 18 months before splitting up, amicably, last May.
According to prosecution counsel Patrick McCarthy SC the court was to hear that Ms Keaney was left Kennedy's company by a friend in the early hours of July 14th. When she could not be contacted afterwards her mother rang the Garda.
Gardaí found her body wrapped in two plastic refuse sacks and hidden near a laneway at Newtown, Cobh, at about 8pm on Sunday, July 16th.
On Friday, Mr McCarthy told the jury that a postmortem examination finding of death due to manual strangulation would be supported by evidence of bruising to Ms Keaney's neck, while lesser injuries on her back would suggest that she was pushed forcefully against a wall in the course of the fatal assault.