A NIGERIAN Leaving Certificate student was shot dead in Co Meath after two men went to his home acting on an unsubstantiated allegation of rape, a court heard yesterday.
Joseph Sullivan (26) was yesterday jailed for seven years for the manslaughter of Sumbo Owoiya (18) at The Court, Dunboyne, Co Meath on August 3rd, 2007.
Sullivan's then girlfriend Carol Craig (18), with addresses at Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin, Dublin and at St James Drive, Tomhaggard, Co Wexford, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
She received a 3½-year sentence which was suspended on her entering into a bond to be on good behaviour for four years.
At Trim Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Michael O'Shea said Sullivan had "outrageously over-reacted" when he heard Craig had complained of being raped.
She claimed the rape took place at the apartment where Mr Owoiya had lived with his family just two weeks earlier on July 20th.
Garda Supt Charles Devine told the court the deceased "had absolutely no connection" with the alleged assault.
Craig later withdrew her statement of complaint, the court heard.
When Craig had told Sullivan she was raped he made contact with a third party, a man, who was not named in court.
Sullivan told gardaí he had gone to this man for help to "sort out" the person or persons responsible.
Sullivan drove Craig to Celbridge to meet the man and she told gardaí he had questioned her about the rape.
When defence barrister Mark de Blacam put it to Supt Devine that Sullivan had intended that the culprits "get a hiding", the garda replied: "I think that's a fair con-clusion."
The court heard that after picking up the gunman - who was armed with a .22 rifle - Sullivan and Craig drove to the apartment block.
She waited in the car.
It was the early hours of the morning and they did not know the security code to get in the door.
The gunman forced another resident to put in the access code to the block. With Sullivan, he then made his way to the apartment where Mr Owoiya lived and banged on the door and shouted.
The gunman told the occupants they were gardaí and when they shouted back they did not believe them and would call the Garda, the gunman responded by firing a shot through the door, the court heard.
John Aylmer SC, prosecuting, said it appeared Mr Owoiya had been looking through the peep-hole in the door when the shot was fired.
The bullet hit his abdomen and passed through his pancreas, liver and aorta before lodging in his spine. He died a short time later.
Gardaí became suspicious of Craig and Sullivan because a few days earlier, on July 20th, she had made a complaint that she was raped.
The deceased had been a Leaving Certificate student in Dunboyne community college and it later emerged that one of his friends was going out with one of Craig's friends, and that was how Craig came to be in the apartment on July 20th.
Neither Craig nor Sullivan was known to gardaí. Sullivan wrote an apology to the dead man's family and said he would live with what had happened on his conscience for the rest of his life.
At the time Craig was 15 years old and Judge O'Shea was told she had tried to dissuade the men from going to the apartment. She only saw the gun when they were in the car on the way there.
The judge said Craig was caught in a difficult situation after making the complaint. She had "foolishly involved herself", he added.
He said Sullivan had made contact with the other man and was dominant in the "plotting and planning".
The family of the deceased were not in court and did not prepare a victim impact statement because it was against their religion, the court heard.