The mood in the public gallery was tense as Majella Holohan outlined what she said were the unanswered questions, writes Carl O'Brien
Majella Holohan's voice trembled. She was reading to the court a handwritten statement detailing the last 12 months of agony her family had endured since her son's death. Then, as she departed from the last page of prepared script, she began to break down.
"Our doctors have told us to try to get on with our lives - but how can we, knowing that there was semen found on my son's body?" she said in a broken voice.
"Would you kill someone for throwing stones at your car? The forensics couldn't find stone marks on the car.
" Why were there no fingerprints found on Rob's phone, even Rob's own fingerprints? Who wiped it clean and deleted images [ from it]?"
There was a murmur from the public and reporters who crowded into the upstairs balcony and public seating at court No 2 in the Central Criminal Court in Ennis.
She continued: "Wayne contacted him at 6am in the morning. Why did a 20-year-old contact an 11-year-old at that hour of the morning?
"What was Robert doing at Wayne's bedroom at 7.30 when he was supposed to be at a sleepover at his other friend's house?
"Whatever happens here today, even if we move house, leave the country, there is no place to go, no place to hide from this nightmare. It is there every minute of every hour of every day."
Majella and her husband Mark had come to court hear what sentence their son's killer would receive and also to outline the impact of Robert's death on the family.
There were many bitter and traumatic days over the last 12 months as hundreds of volunteers set out to search for the 11-year-old's body. Then there was the horror of finding his decomposed body.
Later there was the arrest of trusted neighbour Wayne O'Donoghue, who Robert looked up to as an older brother.
But for the Holohan family, yesterday's sentencing turned out to be yet another traumatic chapter in a series of events that has devastated two sets of families and cast the longest of shadows over the Midleton area.
For the first time, details of allegations which had circulated regarding Robert's death had tumbled into the open, heightening the tension and anger surrounding this case.
After telling the court that he knew what evidence to take account of and what not to in sentencing, Mr Justice Paul Carney turned to Majella Holohan and spoke softly and calmly.
"Mrs Holohan. I want to prepare you at this stage. The sentence I am to impose will upset you, and I will endeavour to explain what I am doing.
" But there is no getting away from the fact that it will upset you."
He was dealing with a manslaughter case and not a cover-up, he said.
While initial injuries suffered by Robert appeared to be at the "horseplay end of the scale", the cover-up after the death was appalling and caused incredible grief and distress to the Holohan family.
After the funeral, however, matters had changed when O'Donoghue confessed to his father and showed genuine remorse.
"Balancing all these factors together as best I humanly can, I sentence the accused to four years of imprisonment from the date of his arrest."
Wayne O'Donoghue, who had been a bleak and disconsolate figure, barely lifting his head during the proceedings, looked towards his parents with relieved eyes.
His father reached over the bench and clutched his son's shoulder in support.
Across the courtroom, Mark Holohan shook his head angrily. As the judge left and O'Donoghue stood up to leave, Mr Holohan rose sharply.
"Four years for a paedophile? That's all you are," thundered Holohan's father. "You're a disgrace boy."
His wife Majella also turned to the engineering student as he filed wordlessly out of the court. "He's a paedophile. We'll appeal - we'll appeal," she shrieked.
The 21-year-old engineering student was led out of the courtroom while his family sat rigidly observing the scenes in silence.
"Will you be getting married now?" Mark Holohan shouted to O'Donoghue, a remark apparently directed at the student and his girlfriend, Rebecca Dennehy, who was sitting close by.
A brother of Majella, who had been in tears earlier, stared angrily at the girl.
Rebecca burst into tears and was immediately surrounded by family and friends, who rushed to console her.
As the Holohan family left the courtroom, and members of the public began to drift away, the O'Donoghue family sat alone hugging each other, quietly offering words of support to each other.
Outside the courtroom, O'Donoghue's solicitor Frank Buttimer said his client accepted the penalty of the court and was deeply grateful to people who had shown him understanding in recent months.
On the issue of Majella Holohan's comments, however, he said Wayne denied any of the allegations.
"Wayne denies any impropriety of any kind. All relevant evidence was led by the prosecution in this particular trial. It was led quite properly . . . The trial was conducted properly."