A man who raped a schoolgirl and left her to drown on a remote Connemara beach, has lost his final legal bid to overturn his conviction.
The body of 17-year-old Siobhán Hynes was found at Tismeain beach, half a mile from the Co Galway home of John "Demesne" McDonagh, in the early hours of December 6th, 1998.
McDonagh (33), a builder's labourer, of The Demesne, Keeraunbeg, Carraroe, was jailed for life at the Central Criminal Court in 2001 after he was found guilty of the murder and rape, with an object, of Ms Hynes, of Sconse, Lettermore, Connemara.
The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed his appeal on all grounds last February.
Yesterday, counsel for McDonagh, Tim O'Leary SC, applied to the appeal court to certify that points of law in the case were of such exceptional public importance that they required to be determined by the Supreme Court. Mr O'Leary said the application was being brought on grounds including a failure to record properly evidence given in the Irish language at the trial.
A further ground related to the failure to use at trial a report by an expert witness, Dr Louise McKenna of the State Forensic Science Laboratory, about transfer of fibres from fibres found on clothing belonging to McDonagh and fibres from Ms Hynes's jacket and jumper.
That report concluded any transfer was "less likely" to have been caused by secondary transfer than by primary transfer and the prosecution contended at the trial that the transfer was by primary transfer.
Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, presiding at the appeal court and sitting with Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Daniel Herbert said the appeal court was "quite satisfied" McDonagh had raised no point of law of exceptional public importance which required determination by the Supreme Court. The appeal court was satisfied that "no injustice" had been caused to McDonagh, he said. The issue concerning fibre transfer had been put before the appeal court and had been rejected.
The opinion of Dr McKenna on the likelihood of secondary transfer of fibres in this case was available to McDonagh's defence counsel at the time of his trial but they had opted not to use it, the judge added. At his trial the prosecution claimed he raped Ms Hynes with an object and brought her to the beach and left her there to drown when the tide came in.