Courts / Cork / Report

Appeal court upholds conviction for man who murdered partner's brother with billhook

Summary

The Court of Appeal has rejected the conviction appeal of Keith O'Hara, who was convicted of murder and burglary in December 2021. O'Hara, of Cahergal Avenue, Mayfield, Cork, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Paul Jones and a second charge of burglary. He was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork and sentenced to life in prison by Mr Justice Michael MacGrath. The appeal, led by Vincent Heneghan SC, argued that DNA samples taken from O'Hara breached his constitutional rights and that evidence from search warrants should have been excluded due to the lack of an audio recording of the application. The State, represented by Jane Hyland SC, countered that authorisation was based on reasonable suspicion and that the District Court judge rightly granted the warrants. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, delivering the judgment, ruled that the grounds for the DNA samples were plainly present and that there was no requirement for the search warrant application to be recorded. He concluded that the trial judge was entitled to admit the evidence and rejected the appeal. Co-accused Helen Jones, the deceased's sister, also failed in her own appeal in June 2024, where the Court of Appeal rejected her bid to overturn her conviction based on the wording of the oath taken by a detective garda.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Appeal court upholds conviction for man who murdered partner's brother with billhook. Charges or matters: Mr Jones' murder and to a second charge of burglary, but he was convicted by a jury in December 2021 at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork and sentenced to life in prison by Mr Justice Michael MacGrath. Procedural stage: appeal. Findings: Convicted

When:

• December 2021 Incident
• September 4, 2019 Hearing Or Sentence
• September 7 Other
• June 2024 Hearing Or Sentence
• 2026-03-26 Publication

Why: In response to these submissions, the State, led by Jane Hyland SC, submitted that the garda superintendent explained that the authorisation for taking the samples was necessarily grounded on his reasonable suspicion of O'Hara's involvement and his belief that the samples would tend to confirm or disprove that involvement. CNI source report

Case subjects

Places mentioned

Topics

Burglary Stage Appeal Violent Crime

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Read the original CNI report