Man serving life sentence receives further 9 years

A DUBLIN man serving a life sentence for murder was jailed for a further nine years at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.

A DUBLIN man serving a life sentence for murder was jailed for a further nine years at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.

Mark Lawlor was jailed for nine years for burglary and five years for sexual assault committed during the murder of Ms Rose, Farrelly.

Mr Justice Geoghegan told Lawlor he had heard "with sadness" of his troubled background but none of that could excuse "the brazen decision to commit violent crime" within a short period of his release on bail in 1993.

The judge was told that Lawlor, who has a series of convictions for burglary and assault from the age of 14, murdered Ms Farrelly in her house just two weeks after he was freed on bail while serving a previous prison sentence in 1993.

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Mr Justice Geoghegan said that had there been a suitable facility to detain Lawlor when he committed his previous crimes "the unfortunate Ms Rose Farrelly might well be alive yesterday".

Lawlor (22), of St Teresa's Gardens, Dublin, was convicted last December of the murder of Ms Farrelly (57) of O'Hara Avenue Harold's Cross, Dublin, on February 14th and 15th, 1993.

He was also convicted of sexually assaulting Ms Farrelly, inflicting grievous bodily harm upon her and stealing a wedding band from her on the same dates.

The jury also found, Lawlor guilty of entering a building at Harold's Cross Cottages on the same dates with intent to steal. He admitted another charge of entering another unoccupied house with intent to steal.

Mr Justice Geoghegan jailed Lawlor for life in December for Farrelly's murder and adjourned sentence on the other charges.

Yesterday, the judge jailed Lawlor for nine years for stealing the wedding band and inflicting grievous bodily harm. He received five years for sexually assaulting Ms Farrelly and 21 months for the burglaries.

The judge ordered all the sentences to run concurrently from when he was taken into custody on February 20th, 1993.

Det Insp Anthony Brislane, who was in charge of the investigation, told Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, that Lawlor had convictions dating back to 1987 when he was 14. He absconded to England where he was jailed for burglary and was extradited back to the Republic in 1991.

Det Insp Brislane said Lawlor was jailed for three years in 1992 for offences committed in 1989 but was freed on bail on January 28th, 1993, pending a review of his sentence.

Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for Lawlor, said the defendant had abused drugs and alcohol and, while there was no evidence of major psychiatric illness, was bordering on being mildly mentally handicapped.

"The real tragedy is that when he came into the prison system there was nowhere he could be taken and he was just put back on the streets,"he added.