A jury has returned a unanimous guilty verdict at the trial of a 21-year-old man charged with the murder of a Ukrainian teenager who was stabbed to death in Limerick two years ago.
John O'Loughlin, of Cecil Street, had denied murdering Roman Vysochan (16) at 12 Carraig Midhe, Corbally, on May 10, 2008, but admitted assaulting the victim’s friend, who was 15 at the time.
Mr Vysochan and his friend were visiting their girlfriends at a house in the Corbally estate when Mr O'Loughlin and another man, entered an upstairs bedroom and stabbed the two teenage boys with a kitchen knife.
The boys ran from the house but Mr Vysochan collapsed at the entrance of the estate and died a short time later from a stab wound to the chest.
During the trial, the court heard that blood from the murder victim and his teenage friend was found on a knife recovered from the back garden of a neighbouring house in Carraig Midhe.
Forensic scientist Diane Daly from the forensic laboratory at the Department of Justice told the court that the chances of the DNA from the blood on the knife being from a person unrelated to Mr Vysochan, was one in a thousand million.
She said a mixed partial DNA profile was found on the knife which, she explained, meant that the DNA was from more than one source.
The DNA contained profiles from Mr Vysochan and the 15-year-old boy, whom Mr O’Loughlin admitted stabbing in the leg. She said it was 200,000 times more likely to be the DNA of Mr Vysochan and the other teenager than Mr Vysochan and another unknown person.
In her closing speech, Mary Rose Gearty, SC, for the prosecution told the jury that the DNA evidence found on the knife was consistent with the prosecution case.
“Clearly the same knife was used to stab both,” Ms Gearty said. “That is the only reasonable conclusion that one can come to on that evidence.”
The jury of seven men and four women returned the guilty verdict yesterday afternoon after deliberating for two hours at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Limerick.
Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed a mandatory life sentence on Mr O’Loughlin after he was convicted of the murder.
Tetyana Vysochan, the victim’s mother, wept in court as Garda John Flanagan read a victim impact statement on her behalf. She said no words could describe her family’s loss. “Our world has fallen. We have lost our beautiful son.”
Mrs Vysochan said Roman’s eight-year-old brother, Oleg, always asks after his brother and misses playing with him.
“How can we answer his questions? How can I explain to him that Roman is dead and we will not see him again?”
Mr O’Loughlin will be sentenced on the assault charge on July 26th.