The four-year sentence handed down to Wayne O'Donoghue by Mr Justice Paul Carney yesterday concludes another harrowing, and public, chapter in the recent history of violent deaths in Ireland.
The tale of Robert Holohan's disappearance gripped every family in this State in the early weeks of 2005. The carefully-worded judgment handed out in court yesterday will not bring to an end the suffering endured by the Holohan family as a result of the loss of their son and brother, an 11-year-old boy full of life and at a stage when he was taking further steps towards independence.
Their suffering was made all the more difficult to bear by the circumstances of his death: his disappearance just after Christmas; the anguished searches as the whole nation looked on; the finding of his body at a lonely beach days later; and finally, the horror of learning that a trusted neighbour had killed him and concealed the body.
The increase in their pain can only be imagined as details came out during the investigation of how Robert died, along with evidence that he suffered distress in his final hours. His mother, Majella Holohan, raised a number of pertinent questions yesterday, among them the suggestion that "semen was found on my son's body". Our Southern Correspondent, Barry Roche, addresses this issue in today's edition.
This evidence may not have been thought strong enough, nor sufficiently relevant to the charge of murder brought against Wayne O'Donoghue, to be put before the jury. The DPP does not give public explanations for his decisions.
Nonetheless, it is clear that this case exposes the inadequacies of the criminal justice system. It can tell us how the boy died and who killed him. But, it is no good at telling us why.
If the case had just been left with the evidence that came out in the court, the public could be forgiven for believing that this was just a bit of horseplay gone wrong. Only for the victim statement of Mrs Holohan, we would not know that there could have been something darker in the background to the child's death.
No fault can be found with the conduct of the case by Mr Justice Carney, however, and his sentence is within the parameters of other cases and the disclosed evidence. He was particularly mindful of the sensitivities of the family in the application of the law. But, the uncertainty about the additional information would need to be resolved: if it is capable of an innocent explanation it would be extremely helpful to the Holohan family as they try to come to terms with their horrible fate.