A LIMERICK man has been given a life sentence after being found guilty of murdering another man by throwing him into the river Shannon two years ago.
Kevin Coughlan (29), of Avondale Drive, Greystones, Limerick, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Francis Greene at Steamboat Quay in the city between November 28th and November 29th, 2009.
But a jury of 10 men and two women returned a majority verdict of guilty after three hours and 25 minutes of deliberation following a three-week trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Coughlan was found guilty by unanimous verdict of the false imprisonment of Mr Greene between Lower Hartstonge Street and Steamboat Quay in Limerick on November 28th, 2009.
Coughlan was also found guilty unanimously of assaulting Roy Finn, a man who was staying with Mr Greene, and of the production of a knife during that assault at Lower Hartstonge Street on November 28th, 2009.
The court heard the body of the 47-year-old former general operative was found six weeks later on a bank of the river Shannon on farming land at Portrine, Co Clare, on February 5th, 2010.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy thanked the jury before discharging them for 10 years.
He told the jury the sentence for murder was mandatory but Coughlan had to be sentenced in respect of the other three charges on January 30th next.
Senior counsel Paddy McCarthy, prosecuting, told the judge a victim impact report had to be prepared by the family before sentencing.
Coughlan had told gardaí Mr Greene jumped into the river, but Coughlan thought he would swim out and denied pushing him in, saying: “The only thing I’m guilty of is not going in after him.”
During the trial, video footage of an interview of the accused’s ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Collopy was played in which she said Coughlan came up to her apartment on the night in question and told her he pushed Mr Greene into the water.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Khalid Jabbar gave a cause of death of asphyxiation and said there was evidence of strangulation from broken bones inside the neck and from teeth marks or indentations on the tongue.
Defence witness Dr Basil Nigel Purdue, a UK-based pathologist said broken neck bones could have been caused by removal during autopsy and it was impossible to give a cause of death.
Senior counsel Anthony Sammon, defending, told the jury his client said Mr Greene jumped into the river, and he said that fitted with evidence of his suicidal ideation, impulsive behaviour and the amphetamine found in his system in the toxicology report.