A Co Laois farm labourer was jailed for life at the Central Criminal Court yesterday for the murder of a young mother at a picnic spot in the Slieve Bloom mountains.
James Conroy (32) had earlier pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Susan Prakash (28) between December 16th and 17th, 2000, at Monicknew in Co Laois.
The court heard that Conroy, of Camross, Co Laois, admitted to gardaí that he had beaten Ms Prakash, who he said was his girlfriend, to death with a wheelbrace after she had asked him if he was child rapist.
Sgt Martin Hannigan told the court that Ms Prakash, who had been picked up by Conroy in his van on the night she was killed, asked him if he had raped young girls after pointing out that he had been in prison.
The court heard that Conroy told gardaí he had first hit Ms Prakash in anger, before deciding to get the wheelbrace from the back of his van and kill her to avoid returning to jail.
"He decided that having hit her he couldn't let her go because he had just got out of prison and would get into trouble," Sgt Hannigan said.
A few hours later he gave himself up to police and confessed to the killing.
The court heard that Conroy told gardai during questioning: "She put up a battle. She begged me to stop. I couldn't stop."
Ms Prakash died after suffocating on her own blood flowing from several serious head wounds, including a broken jaw.
Sgt Hannigan told the court that Conroy had been sentenced to six years' imprisonment in 1994 for sexual assault and was released in mid-1999.