A murder trial concluded this week with the conviction of a petty criminal whose penchant for thuggery earned him the epithet of Limerick's most violent man, writes Éibhir Mulqueen
A Limerick man convicted of murder in the Central Criminal Court this week was given the unenviable epitaph by a garda superintendent of being one of the most violent criminals the city had ever seen.
Protesting his innocence as he was being led away, Raymond Casey (38), of Ashe Avenue, John Carew Park, received a life sentence for the brutal murder of a barman, Mr Noel Pyper, in August 1997, apparently because Mr Pyper had about £150 of the night's takings on him.
Casey, a father of two, seems to have no saving graces. "You will always find something nice to say about people, but not about him," one garda in Limerick said.
Denying the murder charge during the trial, at one point Casey said to his counsel: "I swear on my two kids' lives, that I love very much, it never occurred."
During the trial, he tried to wriggle out of evidence which showed that his palm print was left in bloody splashes on a wall at the murder scene. He had steadied himself while kicking his victim, the prosecution said. He said he had been in the laneway before the murder on a number of occasions to buy drugs and had fixed a motorbike there. He also claimed he was in the vicinity when he and his brother went around collecting wheelie-bins during a refuse collection strike.
It was the forensic evidence, above all, that convicted him.
Said one detective: "The lifting of that fingerprint by the detective sergeant in the forensics laboratory was the best ever in the history of the State because of the surface of the wall. Other experts looked at it and said it was impossible. There was a lot of good luck and a lot of expertise."
At the time, gardaí examined more than 50 hours of video tape and Casey was identified as a suspect when he was spotted standing behind his victim in the Chicken Hut, a takeaway restaurant on O'Connell Street, where Mr Pyper had stopped on his way to his flat on Henry Street after work.
A self-styled martial artist, Raymond Casey was known as a vicious street fighter who prided himself on his image as a hard man who could buck the system. In the four years before the case came to trial, he had changed his counsel repeatedly, delaying the trial while he lived in Galway on bail.
He has 53 previous convictions dating back to 1975. This is his first conviction for murder. Prior to it, his record was typical of somebody engaged in low-level crime who was never going to make it big. Any money he made was spent quickly.
Casey's murder victim, a 48-year-old man, was terminally ill from throat cancer, which, no doubt, contributed to his thin, frail appearance.
Walking home on his own in the early hours of August 12th, 1997, he was dragged into a laneway by Casey and his accomplice, Anthony Casey, no relation, who was aged 16 at the time. He also received a life sentence.
In Lonergan's Lane, Mr Pyper was savagely beaten and choked on his own blood. "They could have pulled his coat over his head, grabbed the money and be gone," one garda said.
On the night, the lane was a dark, lonely place, with refuse bins from South's Pub waiting for collection the next morning. Now Lonergan's Lane is lit up and has prominent signs stating that CCTV cameras are in operation.
Raymond Casey's previous convictions are for crimes of arson, assault, robbery and possession of drugs. He usually operated with one or two others. His record sheet shows a depressing pattern. His father, Edward, has criminal convictions.
CASEY was aged 11 when he first came to the attention of the law. He left school at 13 but was back in a State institution at 18, when he served his first term in St Patrick's. Two years later, he was in prison on Spike Island for receiving stolen goods and for assault. By 1986, he had graduated to Limerick Prison for an offence of drunkenness and disorder. Convictions for larceny, road traffic offences, and assaulting a garda followed in the early 90s, culminating in a four-year sentence for handling stolen property in January of last year.
"He saw nothing but roguery since he was a young fellow," a garda involved in the investigation said. "I would certainly try to rise above the voyeurism that says he is the worst criminal ever. He is not. He is a reflection of a failed system of housing policy, childcare policy and rehabilitation polices."
But the same garda points out that Casey showed no mercy in his attack on Pyper. His propensity for violence and the senselessness of the murder appals all gardaí who have had dealings with him. Another officer said he would list Casey among the five most dangerous men in Limerick.
Casey would have known of Noel Pyper from the pub where he worked, Noel's Bar, on Catherine Street. It had a rough reputation and Mr Pyper had worked on changing that, refusing to serve some people. Everybody uses the word "inoffensive" in describing him. This week, a man who knew him recalled that he was "an old-style barman who had served his time learning the trade".
One patron of the bar remembered him for giving out free soup and bread to the building site workers who would come in after a day's work. A separated man from Macroom, Co Cork, Mr Pyper has a son and daughter who live in England. Noel's Bar has since changed hands and has been subsumed into an adjoining premises, Molly O'Riardan's.
With heat lamps outside, a cocktail menu and young clientele inside, no trace of the quiet, unassuming barman remains.