Two men have been convicted of the killing of 19-year-old Brian Mulvaney, who was beaten to death after a party in Dublin three years ago.
Brian Willoughby (24), Orwell Park, Templeogue, was jailed for life yesterday for murder and Stephen Aherne (18) was convicted of the manslaughter of Mr Mulvaney after a 3½-week trial at the Central Criminal Court.
A third man, Mr Neal Barbour (20), Domville Road, Templeogue, was acquitted by the jury, who rejected the contention that he intended to cause serious harm to the victim, although he had dragged him on to the ground before running away.
After more than seven hours, the jury of seven women and five men returned their unanimous verdicts to a packed courtroom.
Mr Mulvaney's mother Anni and his sister Aoife cried when the verdicts were announced. "Brian Willoughby is going to be where he belongs, he's a danger," Ms Aoife Mulvaney said.
The jury found him guilty of the murder of Mr Mulvaney on March 11th, 2000. It convicted Stephen Aherne, formerly of Willington Crescent, Templeogue, and with an address at College Farm Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare, of the manslaughter of Mr Mulvaney.
Mr Justice White thanked the jurors for their service and exempted them from future jury service for life.
Willoughby stood impassively as Mr Justice White imposed the mandatory life sentence. Aherne was remanded in custody for sentencing on May 26th. Mr Barbour was discharged, but is due to face charges in relation to a number of unrelated assaults in which he was involved earlier on the same evening.
Mr Mulvaney died after a fateful encounter with Willoughby at a mutual friend's party in the Orwell estate. He did not know his attackers and the trial heard how Willoughby "lured" him to the nearby Orwell shopping centre in the early hours of the morning before asking his co-accused to help him give him "a hiding".
Mr Mulvaney was first assaulted at the scene and then chased some distance before Mr Barbour grounded him and Willoughby and Aherne beat him up. Mr Mulvaney was found unconscious with severe head injuries at the Watercourse, Orwell Park Drive, Templeogue, in the early hours of March 11th. He died shortly afterwards at Tallaght Hospital.
The prosecution, led by Mr Tom O'Connell SC and Mr Dominic McGinn, alleged that the three acted together as part of a joint enterprise to murder or cause serious harm to Mr Mulvaney when they agreed in advance to "give him a hiding".
The court heard that Willoughby was jealous of Mr Mulvaney because at the party he was dancing with a local girl with whom Willoughby was infatuated. Witnesses gave evidence that Willoughby had referred to Mr Mulvaney at the party as a "faggot". His mother gave evidence about his homophobic tendencies, which had caused him in 1998 to attack and stab two men in separate assaults in Dublin city.
The chief prosecution evidence comprised statements to gardaí in which all three admitted carrying out the attack on a man they had never met before.
Willoughby, who has a long history of psychiatric disorder, said he had "gone berserk" and that he had asked his co- accused to help him give the victim "a hiding".
"I met Stephen Aherne and said this guy was 'shitting on Orwell' and I said 'let's give him a hiding'," he told gardaí. "I kept dancing on his head . . . I kept jumping up and down on his head when he was on the ground."
Aherne told gardaí that Willoughby said 'he's a queer from Knocklyon ' and 'will we get him'. "We agreed to get him," he said.
Mr Barbour also admitted he was involved and although he first referred to the assault as a "tussle" from which he ran, he later admitted he had chased Mr Mulvaney and brought him to the ground.Mr Barbour told gardaí that he became afraid and ran away. "I took a few steps back, Brian Willoughby was jumping and dancing on his head. I said, 'that's taking things a bit far' . . . I started to run."
Controversy emerged at the trial over the exact cause of Mr Mulvaney's death. The State Pathologist said he would not have died if he hadn't been attacked. He said the primary cause of death resulted from a large amount of blood in his lungs which he could not cough up, because he was knocked unconscious by the attackers.
Defence counsel for Aherne, Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC, called an independent pathologist from Edinburgh, Prof Anthony Busuttil, who said the effects of a "fatal dose" of ecstasy in Mr Mulvaney's blood could not be ruled out as a contributory factor.
The issue of insanity was rejected by the jury in the case of Willoughby, whose mother gave compelling evidence of his disturbed state of mind for a long time before the killing. Mrs Therese Willoughby recalled how he had cut his wrists and was refused admittance to a psychiatric unit in the days before the killing.
He was behaving "in a very demented, aggressive, mad way".
Willoughby watched extremely violent videos and was obsessive about collecting items. Mrs Willoughby told the jury that even the family dog "was afraid of Brian".
The court heard he suffered from a severe degree of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for most of his life.
However, Dr Cleo van Velsen, a forensic psychiatrist, said although he was very disturbed, he was not criminally insane. "I don't have any argument with the idea that this is a very disturbed young man, but there is no evidence I could see or read that he was psychotic," she said.