The Court of Appeal has dismissed Kieran Greene’s appeal against his conviction for the murder of Patricia O’Connor, rejecting six challenges to the way his trial was conducted and the evidence put before the jury.
Greene was convicted on 25 February 2020 of murdering O’Connor, his partner’s mother, at their shared home on 29 May 2017. The appeal judgment, delivered by Mr Justice McCarthy on 11 November 2022, records that Greene initially told gardaí he had killed her during a struggle and later gave a different account, alleging that Augustine O’Connor had inflicted the fatal blows. Those admissions were evidence against Greene only, the court said, and not against his co-accused.
Greene argued that he should have been tried separately from four co-accused charged with impeding his apprehension or prosecution. The appeal court said the jury had been directed to consider each accused separately and that the wording of the charges did not prejudice Greene. It upheld the trial judge’s refusal to order separate trials.
The court also upheld the decision not to leave provocation to the jury. Greene’s interviews described a history of conflict in the household and alleged that O’Connor struck him with a hurley during the fatal encounter. The appeal court agreed with the trial judge that the evidence did not provide a basis for the jury to consider provocation.
Other grounds concerned proposed evidence about Augustine O’Connor’s statements to gardaí and expert evidence about Greene’s intellectual functioning. The appeal court said the proposed statements were irrelevant to Greene’s guilt and could not be used to establish that Augustine O’Connor was responsible for the killing. It also upheld the exclusion of a psychologist’s evidence, finding it was directed to credibility, which was for the jury to assess.
Greene further argued that the jury should have been allowed to consider an alternative verdict under section 7(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1997, relating to impeding the apprehension or prosecution of an offender. The court agreed with the trial judge that this was not a viable alternative on the evidence and the way the case had been presented. It said the available verdicts were murder, manslaughter or not guilty.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. The judgment does not alter Greene’s conviction.