Keith O’Neill appeals murder conviction at Court of Appeal

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

Keith O’Neill’s appeal against his murder conviction was heard at the Court of Appeal on 25 February 2022. Judgment was reserved. The proceedings were reported on 25 February 2022.

O’Neill had pleaded not guilty to shooting dead John Wilson at Wilson’s home on Cloverhill Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin, on 28 September 2012. A jury found him guilty, and Mr Justice Tony Hunt sentenced him to life imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court in May 2015.

O’Neill’s lawyers argued that forensic evidence of gunshot residue on clothes he had dumped in a skip should not have been admitted at trial. Ronan Munro SC, for O’Neill, submitted that gardaí had failed to seek and preserve the evidence. He said an armed garda retrieved an unsealed bag containing the clothes and placed it in a patrol car used by firearms officers, creating a potential for contamination.

Munro also pointed to evidence from Wilson’s young daughter, an eyewitness, who described the gunman as “fat”. Counsel said O’Neill had been very lean at the time.

Munro cited the use of a single gunshot-residue particle in the Jill Dando murder case. Barry George was convicted of her murder in 2001, successfully appealed and was acquitted in 2008.

Presiding judge Mr Justice John Edwards said English guidelines recommended caution with evidence of small amounts of residue. Conor Devally SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the guidelines were proposals and had not become established protocols. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy also sat on the appeal.