Deirdre Arnold jailed for assisting Lisa Thompson’s killer

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Deirdre Arnold was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 4 July 2025 to three years’ imprisonment, with the final year suspended, on each of two counts. Mr Justice Patrick McGrath ordered the sentences to run concurrently.

Arnold, of Briarfield Grove, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, was charged with acting without reasonable excuse to impede the apprehension or prosecution of Brian McHugh, knowing or believing him guilty of murder or another arrestable offence. She was also charged with a course of conduct tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice. Both charges concerned a date between 9 and 10 May 2022 inclusive.

She pleaded not guilty to both counts. The proceedings were reported on 4 July 2025. A jury found her guilty on 8 April 2025.

The jury accepted the State’s case that Arnold drove McHugh to Lisa Thompson’s Ballymun home on 9 May 2022, waited outside for more than an hour and drove him away. She later checked him into a hotel near Dublin Airport to help him evade prosecution. The prosecution also alleged that she allowed her car to be used to dispose of evidence from the house.

Her defence argued that the prosecution had not proved she knew McHugh had committed murder when she drove him away. Counsel said she was fearful of him and reminded jurors that a conviction required them to find she had assisted him without reasonable excuse.

At sentencing, Mr Justice McGrath said Arnold had suffered serious abuse and feared McHugh, but found she had a choice in what she did. He accepted her remorse as genuine and reduced the five-year headline sentence to three years after considering mitigation. The judge said therapy and a period of suspension on certain terms would be of use to her.

The court also heard that Arnold had a previous conviction from 2022 for attempting to drive under the influence of drugs, for which she was fined and disqualified from driving for 18 months.