The Court of Appeal has quashed David O’Loughlin’s murder conviction and substituted a verdict of manslaughter, finding that the evidence did not establish an essential element of murder. It remitted the case to the Central Criminal Court for sentence.
O’Loughlin had been convicted on 28 January 2019 of murdering Liam Manley and sentenced to life imprisonment. The appeal concerned that conviction. The Court of Appeal delivered judgment on 23 March 2021.
The case arose from events at Garden City Apartments in Cork on 12 May 2013. The judgment said CCTV showed O’Loughlin bringing food to Manley and later taking him to his apartment. A prosecution witness testified that O’Loughlin punched Manley there. The evidence indicated that O’Loughlin later put Manley head first into a rubbish chute. Manley’s body was discovered the following day when a worker tried to clear a blockage. The State Pathologist attributed the death to a combination of traumatic and positional asphyxia and hypoxia.
At trial, O’Loughlin argued that rubbish bags blocking the chute amounted to an intervening act that broke the chain of causation. He also challenged whether the evidence could establish the intent required for murder. The Court of Appeal rejected the causation argument: it said the relevant legal test was whether O’Loughlin’s actions were related to the death in more than a minimal way, and held that no later act by a third party had intervened to break the chain.
The court reached a different conclusion on intent. Murder required proof that O’Loughlin intended to kill or cause serious injury. Although the law presumes a person intended the natural and probable consequences of their conduct, that presumption can be rebutted, and the prosecution must prove the required intent beyond reasonable doubt. The court concluded there was no evidence of an essential element of murder and said the murder conviction was unsafe.
The court therefore allowed the appeal, quashed the murder conviction and substituted manslaughter under section 3(1)(d) of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993. It directed that the matter be remitted for sentence. It did not address the remaining grounds of appeal.