Keith Connorton pleads not guilty to murder in Tallaght trial

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

Keith Connorton has pleaded not guilty to murdering Graham McKeever at the Central Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 18 December 2018.

The charge concerns the fatal stabbing of McKeever at Connorton’s home on Deerpark Avenue, Tallaght, on 18 February 2017. The trial was continuing before Justice Tony Hunt and a jury.

During the trial, defence counsel Michael O’Higgins SC showed Connorton’s partner, Claire McGrath, and the jury a video of an interview Connorton gave to gardaí after his arrest on 20 February 2017. Connorton said McKeever came at him with a knife, which he grabbed and turned around before stabbing him.

McGrath accepted that Connorton’s account differed from her evidence to the jury and her earlier statements to gardaí. She said she had taken prescribed painkillers and Xanax when she made the statements and that her account was unreliable. She said Connorton’s account might be more reliable and agreed she may have slanted her earlier statements in McKeever’s favour and against Connorton.

Sergeant Camon Ryan told O’Higgins that McGrath was calm and did not appear to be “out of her head” when she gave her second statement at her mother’s home on the evening after the stabbing.