Background: How events unfolded

THE DEATH of Úna Lynskey (19) in 1971 shocked the rural community of Porterstown Lane, near Ratoath in Meath, and caused a bitter split between families and relatives living in the area.

The civil servant disappeared when she was returning from work at the Land Commission on October 12th, 1971.

She had taken the bus from Dublin and was last seen making the 15-minute journey on foot from the bus stop to her home.

Two months later her body was found in the Dublin mountains. A postmortem failed to reveal exactly how she died. She had no broken bones and there were no signs that she had been strangled.

The next year, two young local men, Martin Conmey and friend Dick Donnelly, were convicted of Ms Lynskey’s manslaughter.

The friends had initially come to the attention of gardaí because Mr Donnelly drove a Zephyr, a similar model to a Ford Zodiac that had been sighted on the evening Ms Lynskey disappeared.

Both men appealed the verdict and Mr Donnelly’s conviction was overturned, but Mr Conmey served three years in prison for the offence. Another friend, Martin Kerrigan, was suspected of involvement, but he was abducted and killed a short time after Ms Lynskey’s body was discovered.

The Court of Criminal Appeal heard claims of Garda brutality by the murder squad’s so-called “heavy gang” during the investigation into Ms Lynskey’s death. Mr Conmey, who was 20 at the time, claimed he was punched, thrown on the floor and then “pulled up by the hair” while being questioned at Trim Garda station after Ms Lynskey vanished.

Mr Conmey’s barrister Hugh Hartnett had told the court his client’s conviction for manslaughter resulted in him being depressed for many years.