Tegan McGhee jailed for life for murder of four-year-old stepson

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

Tegan McGhee, 32, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her partner’s four-year-old son, Mason O’Connell Conway, at the Central Criminal Court. The judge also imposed concurrent sentences of four and a half years on each of two child cruelty charges she had admitted.

McGhee changed her plea to guilty on the fourth day of her trial last November, after medical evidence was heard. The court lifted the order preventing identification of McGhee, Mason and his father after an application by RTÉ and Mediahuis.

The judge said Mason had been isolated from family and friends and had suffered abusive assaults. The court heard he had severe head and liver injuries; the State Pathologist said the cause of death was traumatic head injury combined with blunt-force trauma to the abdomen.