Simon McGinley loses appeal against murder conviction

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

Simon McGinley’s appeal against his murder conviction was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 14 October 2022.

The appeal concerned new psychiatric evidence about McGinley’s mental state when he attacked Eugene Gillespie at a house on Old Market Street, Sligo, in 2012.

The judgment said neither insanity nor diminished responsibility had been raised at trial or in McGinley’s first appeal. The judge described the proposed retrospective diagnosis as speculative and insufficient to meet the threshold for diminished responsibility.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, leaving McGinley’s murder conviction in place.