Cold case killer Noel Long is seeking to overturn his conviction for murdering vulnerable Cork woman Nora Sheehan 44 years ago.
Long argues there was a prejudicial delay in bringing the case and that DNA evidence should not have been put before the jury.
In August 2023, the State succeeded in pursuing the oldest murder prosecution in Irish history, with a jury unanimously accepting the prosecution’s case that Long, who has a 1972 conviction for sexual offending, was guilty of murder in June 1981.
The trial heard evidence that a partial DNA profile generated from semen found in Sheehan’s body matched Long’s DNA.
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The jury agreed with the State’s case that the evidence in the trial all pointed to the “inescapable conclusion” the mother of three had met her death at the hands of Long, who is now 77 years old.
There was also evidence that Long had been in the same area as Sheehan (54) when she went missing, that fibres recovered from her matched those taken from the carpeting of Long’s car and that paint fragments removed from the victim’s clothing also matched paint taken from the same vehicle.
Long, a former British army soldier with an address at Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork, had pleaded not guilty to murder. Her naked and bruised body was found by forestry workers at The Viewing Point, Shippool Woods in Cork six days after she went missing.
In the Court of Appeal on Monday, Michael Delaney SC said his client takes issue with the trial judge’s ruling on the admissibility of trace and DNA evidence.
There were also issues with “delay” of the case, he said. Counsel said this ground also covers the culpability of prosecution authorities for the delay itself and the loss of virtually all of the physical exhibits in the case.
Delaney submitted that it had been unlawful to hold Long for questioning on Sheehan’s death and to examine his car when he was arrested on June 16th, 1981, under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939. He contended the arrest itself was an abuse by gardaí of this section 30 power of arrest.
During a hearing before the main trial, retired Garda inspector Matthew Thorne (91) said he arrested Long for the murder, although section 30 would not permit such an arrest.
Delaney said there was “uncritical acceptance” by the trial judge of Thorne’s evidence, where he had claimed he had a power under section 30 to arrest Long for murder. “It doesn’t stand up to scrutiny that someone with that level of experience in the gardaí didn’t appreciate that section 30 did not empower him to arrest for murder.”
Counsel argued the results of the examination of Long’s car and a blood sample taken from him flowed from a “deliberate and conscious breach” of his constitutional rights. Therefore, the later search warrant, issued by the District Court in late 2021, which was grounded on this information, was invalid and of no legal effect.
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Seoirse Ó Dunlaing SC, submitted that the trial judge correctly admitted the DNA and other evidence, regardless of what happened at the time of the 1981 arrest.
The three-day hearing continues tomorrow before the Court of Appeal.
