THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has dismissed Brian Kearney’s appeal against his conviction for the 2006 murder of his wife Siobhán at their Dublin home.
The three-judge appeal court with Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns presiding and sitting with Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne and Mr Justice John MacMenamin, heard the appeal yesterday.
After it concluded, the court adjourned for 45 minutes to consider its decision after which Mr Justice Kearns said the court would dismiss the appeal and give its reasons at a later date. The decision was greeted with applause by members of the victim’s family.
Kearney had been found guilty at the Central Criminal Court in March 2008 of murdering his wife, the mother of their young son, at their home at Knocknashee, Goatstown, on February 28th, 2006, his 49th birthday.
Kearney (52) was convicted of his wife’s murder by a verdict of 11 to one and Mr Justice Barry White imposed the mandatory life sentence.
During the trial, the prosecution argued that Ms Kearney (38) was planning to separate from her husband and to move into a new home the couple had built but this did not fit into Kearney’s plans.
He had strangled her with a vacuum cleaner flex before attempting to make her death look like a suicide.
Moving the appeal yesterday, Michael O’Higgins SC argued that Kearney’s conviction was “manifestly unsafe” because of the lack of primary fact evidence linking him to her killing.
Mr O’Higgins also argued that the trial judge had erred by allowing into evidence a reference to the fact Ms Kearney had kept a diary.
That diary was kept by her on the advice of her solicitor to keep notes on the relationship with her husband for use in family law proceedings, Mr O’Higgins said. While its contents were not given, the jury was told the diary was found concealed in a hot press with money and her passport.
This information, Mr O’Higgins submitted, could have led the jury to speculate about the contents in a manner prejudicial to his client.
He further argued the probative value of the diary was not proven by the prosecution as it had already been agreed that Ms Kearney was serious about separating from her husband.
Further grounds of the appeal included that the prosecution had exceeded what was permissible in relation to Kearney’s exercising of his right to silence during interviews with the Garda.
Mr O’Higgins said there should have been a directed acquittal at the end of the prosecution case.
Opposing the appeal, Denis Vaughan-Buckley SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the trial judge had not erred in any respect in his handling of the trial and the conviction was safe.
The evidence against Kearney was “overwhelming”, Mr Vaughan-Buckley continued. The jury had found Kearney guilty on the facts and was entitled to do so.