Category: Irish Crime

10 – Catherine Nevin: The Black Widow (Part 1)

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Black Widow, Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, IRA/Paramilitary links, Irish Crime, murder, Women Who Kill

The weekend of St Patrick’s Day, 1996, Tom Nevin was found lying dead from a gunshot wound to the chest in the kitchen of his pub, Jack White’s in the popular seaside town of Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow.  His wife, Catherine, had sounded the alarm and when the Gardai arrived they found her bound by the wrists. She said that intruders had entered the pub, looking for jewellery.  But something wasn’t quite right, the scene seemed staged, and soon the Gardai began unravelling a web of deceit constructed carefully over nearly 10 years of a plan to have Tom Nevin killed. All eyes now turned to Catherine. Was she really a grieving widow? Or a Black Widow who had her husband killed to get control of their assets?

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9 – The Scissor Sisters & the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, murder, Women Who Kill

Farah Swaleh Noor was an apparent Somalian refugee to Ireland and disappeared on the 20th March 2005. Later that month, and unidentified male body was pulled from the Royal Canal on Dublin city’s north side in pieces which had been dumped in black plastic rubbish bags. The body – missing its head-  was identified as Farah Noor, and it soon became apparent that his girlfriend Kathleen Mulhall and her two daughters, Linda and Charlotte, were involved in the gruesome murder, dismemberment and disposal of his body.

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8 – The True Crimes of Brendan O’Donnell: Murder in Muster

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Insanity Defence, Irish Crime, Kidnapping, Mental Health, murder

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Brendan O’Donnell was a troubled and clingy child. After the death of his mother, he displayed violent tendencies. Rather than making his way into the mental health services and getting treatment, he found himself in detention centres for delinquent children. He spiralled out of control and eventually rampaged across the peaceful countryside near Lough Derg, killing three people and holding another two at gun point.

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6 – The Kerry Babies Murder & familial false confessions

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, Irish Crime, murder, unsolved, Wrongly Accused

In the year 1984, Ireland was a very different place. Contraception, Abortion and Divorce were illegal. The country was dogged by religious conservatism and was facing into a terrible recession. Amidst this, the body of a baby boy was found on a beach in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry.

The police began to look for the likely suspect: a recently-pregnant unmarried mother. Joanne Hayes was accused and charged with the murder of the infant. She and her whole family eventually confessed to the murder, despite Joanne’s baby being located. So what had caused the family to confess?

A judicial inquiry was set up to investigate Garda maltreatment, but it soon turned into a trial of Joanne’s character.

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5 – Rachel O’Reilly: Murder of a Mother

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime

In October of 2004, Rachel O’Reilly was brutally attacked in her North County Dublin home. Initially, the Gardai treated the crime as a burglary gone wrong, but soon it became clear that this was no random attack. Her husband, Joe O’Reilly, appeared in the media appealing for information about his wife’s death, and given his strange demeanour, the public began to question, who really was responsible for the murder of Rachel O’Reilly?

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3 – The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier & trial by press

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Irish Crime, murder, unsolved

Sophie Toscan du Plantier was a french writer and documentarian, who owned a secluded holiday home in the picturesque west Cork town of Schull. Days before Christmas 1996, she was found savagely murdered in the lane way leading to her house. The case remains unsolved, but that doesn’t mean the matter hasn’t been heard before the courts. The prime suspect, Ian Bailey, took a defamation action against eight newspapers for reporting that he was the prime suspect in the case.

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1 – The Murder of Elaine O’Hara: A Kink Killing

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Irish Crime, murder, sadism

 

In this, the premiere episode of the Mens Rea Podcast, we take a look at one of the most shocking crimes that captivated Ireland in recent years. Elaine O’Hara was a troubled woman who disappeared in 2012 and was presumed to have committed suicide. A year later, due to a series of coincidences, her body was found. This was now a crime. A man with an appetite for the twisted, Graham Dwyer, was charged and convicted of her murder.

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