Patrick Ballard sentenced to life for Sharon Bennett’s murder

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

Patrick Ballard was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Sharon Bennett at the Central Criminal Court on 7 October 2022. The murder took place in a public toilet in Ennis, Co Clare.

The sentence followed Ballard’s guilty plea on 6 October, after the trial had begun. The court heard a victim impact statement before sentence was imposed.

The sentence was backdated to 28 January 2021, when Ballard went into custody. Life imprisonment is the mandatory sentence for murder.