Brother makes appeal to killer's 'better nature'

THE BROTHER of Meg Walsh yesterday appealed to her killer to listen to their conscience and give themselves up after hearing how his sister had died from serious injuries to her head.

James Walsh issued the appeal at Waterford Courthouse yesterday where he was accompanied by Ms Walsh's daughter from her first marriage, Sasha Keating, to hear a jury verdict on his sister's death. "I'd like to think that whoever's responsible would at some stage, at some stage their conscience might get at them and maybe we could appeal to their better nature and say 'Look - it's never too late'," said Mr Walsh.

Mr Walsh expressed some surprise that the verdict returned by the jury failed to explicitly mention the fact that his sister had been killed but no matter what verdict was returned, it was clear that she had been brutally murdered.

"I thought they'd bring in a verdict of unlawful killing, it's fine but blunt force trauma to the head - sure, it's murder, it's as simple as that," said Mr Walsh who, flanked by Sasha and other relatives and friends, spoke briefly to the media after emerging from the 30-minute hearing.

"Personally for me and Sasha, hopefully (we go) back to the simple life we knew before Meg was killed.

"It's a long road without a turn, you never know, some day hopefully there will be justice done to some degree at some stage - that's all we can hope for."

"I think the gardaí are still working away in the background - that is the information I have.

"I have every confidence in them - they are after doing an awful lot for us and we couldn't thank them enough," said Mr Walsh.

Ms Walsh's husband, John O'Brien spoke briefly when approached by TV3's Paul Byrne outside the courthouse. He refused to comment on whether he had any contact with Ms Walsh's family since her death.

Asked by Byrne how life had been since his wife's killing and his subsequent charging with and acquittal of her murder, Mr O'Brien said "tough, as you can imagine."

When asked if he had any message for Ms Walsh's family, he replied "no comment."