Initial ruling was set aside

Rachel Kiely was walking the family dogs in a park near her Cork home when Ian Horgan raped and killed her in October 2000.

At his first trial in 2002, Horgan was convicted of the murder and rape of the young beautician, who was found strangled at the Regional Park in Ballincollig. Those convictions however were set aside by the Court of Criminal Appeal, which ordered a retrial.

It was while on bail pending that retrial, in September 2005, that Horgan committed the robbery of a rural post office, terrorising an elderly couple and their son in the process.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday for this crime.

When Horgan was retried in 2006, he pleaded guilty to Ms Kiely's manslaughter and was found guilty of her rape and sentenced to eight years in jail. Six years were suspended to take account of time in prison he had served.

However, in April of this year, following a successful appeal against the leniency of the sentence by the DPP, the Court of Criminal Appeal substituted a 12- year sentence on both counts, backdated to 2001.

The evidence at the second trial was that Ms Kiely left her home at Inishmore Square, Ballincollig, with her two dogs to go walking in the nearby Regional Park at about 5pm on October 26th, 2000.

While she was seen in the park at about 5.15pm, the dogs returned home without her at about 5.40pm, at which point her mother became concerned as to her s whereabouts and safety.

Gardaí and friends were contacted and an extensive search was undertaken. Her body was found in undergrowth in the park. She had been raped and there was evidence she had suffered compression to her neck, which precipitated her death by causing cardiac arrest.