Victim's terminally ill sister calls on State to prosecute "mastermind" behind murder

A terminally ill woman has made an urgent appeal for prosecution of a third individual she believes orchestrated the murder of her sister fourteen years earlier. Anne Delcassian, too unwell to attend court in person, delivered her plea through her solicitor Kevin Winters following the sentencing of Niall Power to life imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court on 8 July 2019. Irene White, a mother of three, was killed at her home on Demesne Road, Dundalk on 6 April 2005. She was discovered by her elderly mother bearing 34 stab wounds and a cut throat. The case had remained largely dormant until a television appeal in 2012 prompted an anonymous call from Australia, leading to the arrest of Anthony Lambe of Castleblayney, County Monaghan. Lambe pleaded guilty to murder in January 2018 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Power, aged 47 and formerly of Riverstown, County Louth, presented himself to gardaí after Lambe's conviction. He admitted to acting as an intermediary in arranging the killing, conveying a request from an unnamed individual and subsequently introducing that person to Lambe, whom he facilitated in committing the offence. He received a mandatory life sentence following his guilty plea. Mr Winters characterised the crime as involving what he described as a murderous triumvirate and stated that authorities possess sufficient evidence against the alleged organiser. He called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to complete the investigation by pursuing charges against the third party. Both convicted men had indicated they were acting on instructions from someone else, though that individual has not been publicly identified or charged in connection with the killing.