John Joseph Malone sentenced to life for murder

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

John Joseph Malone was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Ann ‘Nancy’ Smyth at the Central Criminal Court on 13 April 2017. Smyth was killed at her home on Wolfe Tone Street, Kilkenny, in 1987 before the house was set on fire. Malone was convicted after the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict. The judge imposed the mandatory life sentence after hearing from Smyth’s family.

The case followed a renewed investigation in which witnesses told gardaí that Malone had confessed to the killing. Evidence before the court included medical findings that Smyth died from strangulation before the fire was lit.