Laura Kenna loses conviction and sentence appeals

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

Laura Kenna lost her appeals against her convictions for attempted murder and assault causing serious harm, and against her sentence, at the Court of Appeal on 1 October 2020.

She had been convicted after a Central Criminal Court trial on 5 March 2019. She was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison, with the final five years suspended on conditions.

At trial, the defence formally admitted the facts of the attack and investigation. Kenna had confronted Fionnuala Bourke on a street in Drumcondra, Dublin, on 3 January 2017, repeatedly stabbed her and cut her throat. She then demanded Bourke’s handbag and fled.

The issue at trial was whether Kenna met the criteria for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Defence psychiatrist Dr Stephen Monks concluded that she was legally insane at the time of the assault. Prosecution expert Professor Hany Kennedy took the view that she did not meet the criteria.

Kenna argued on appeal that the prosecution expert’s evidence lacked cogency and was contradicted by other evidence, making her convictions unsafe. She also argued that her significant mental health problems warranted a greater reduction from the 17-year headline sentence, and that her history of homelessness and drug addiction increased the risk she would have to serve the suspended portion.

The judgment also described a separate assault at a Luas platform about two weeks before the attack on Bourke. Kenna was found not guilty by reason of insanity of assault causing harm in that case; both psychiatrists had agreed that she met the criteria for that verdict.

In a judgment delivered by the court’s president, Birmingham P, the Court of Appeal found nothing to suggest the convictions were unsafe and no error in principle in the sentencing approach. It dismissed both appeals.