John Joseph Malone denied Kilkenny murder charge

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

John Joseph Malone of Newpark, Kilkenny, was accused of murdering Anne Nancy Smyth at her home in Kilkenny in September 1987. He denied the charge. The proceedings were reported on 27 March 2017.

Geraldine Brennan, who lived three doors down from Smyth on Wolfe Tone Street, told the trial that shortly after midnight on 11 September 1987 she heard a man shouting in the street. She said that when she went outside, she saw John Joe Malone banging on Smyth’s door and windows. She described him as angry and agitated.

Brennan told the jury she went back to bed and assumed he had gone home when things went quiet. The prosecution alleged that Malone gained entry to the house, beat the 69-year-old Smyth, strangled her and set the house on fire.