Thomas O'Connor jailed for murdering John O'Brien

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

Thomas O'Connor was sentenced to life in prison by Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on 23 March 2017 for murdering John O'Brien. The sentence was backdated to 5 June 2010.

O'Connor had been charged with murdering the 22-year-old at Farrankelly Road, Delgany, Co Wicklow, on 4 June 2010. He had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. The proceedings were reported on 23 March 2017.

O'Connor admitted hitting O'Brien over the head with a boulder two or three times, but said he did so to protect himself after his friend attacked him. A postmortem found that O'Brien died from catastrophic injuries caused by blunt force trauma to the head.

This was O'Connor's second conviction for the murder. The Court of Criminal Appeal overturned his original conviction in November 2014 and ordered a retrial.

Detective Sergeant Eamon O’Neill read victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing. Defence counsel Feargal Kavanagh SC also read a statement on O'Connor's behalf, in which he said he was “deeply sorry for the pain and suffering” he had inflicted.