Sean Nolan's murder conviction appeal dismissed

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

Sean Nolan’s appeal against his murder conviction was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 25 July 2023. The judgment was delivered by Birmingham P.

Nolan was convicted on 29 October 2020 following a Central Criminal Court trial for the murder of his partner, Amanda Carroll, at her home in Cabra, Dublin, on 21 October 2018. The jury returned a 10:2 majority verdict after an 11-day trial.

On the first day of the trial, Nolan pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The Director of Public Prosecutions did not accept that plea, and the murder trial proceeded. Nolan conceded that his actions had unlawfully caused Carroll’s death, but the defence disputed that he had intended to kill her or cause serious harm.

In Garda interviews, Nolan said he had put one hand over Carroll’s mouth and one over her neck. He said she had been calling him names, scraping him and trying to hit him, and that he had put his hand over her mouth to stop her talking. He also said he had never intended to kill her.

State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the trial that death was due to blunt force trauma to the neck and mouth consistent with manual compression, complicated by drug intoxication.

The appeal challenged the admission of evidence of conversations with Gardaí at the roadside and in a Garda car, as well as the trial judge’s directions concerning intoxication and serious injury. The Court of Appeal was not persuaded that the judge had erred or that the trial was unfair or unsafe.