Men jailed after bodies found in Kerry boghole appeal against murder convictions
Two men jailed for life for the murder of a man whose body was discovered in a boghole outside Listowel, Co Kerry three years ago have brought appeals against their convictions.
John-Paul Cawley (aged 22), and Wenio Rodriguez Da Silva (aged 31), both with addresses at Ardoughter in Ballyduff, Co Kerry, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bruno Lemes De Sousa at Shronowen Bog, Listowel between February 16 and 17 2012.
Cawley had pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
A jury at a Kerry sitting of the Central Criminal Court found both men guilty of murder and they were given the mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan on May 22, 2013.
Moving an appeal against conviction in the Court of Appeal today, John B Peart SC, for Da Silva, said the jury should have been discharged against his client and the trial should have gone on against Cawley.
Mr Peart said Cawley's barrister, Anthony Sammon SC, prejudiced Da Silva by jokingly referring to him and another man as “two short planks” when the removal of an engine from a Ford Mondeo using wooden planks was discussed in front of the jury.
There was no need for the remark, Mr Peart said, and it was done “for the purpose of destroying” Da Silva's defence.
Mr Sammon, for Cawley, submitted that the trial judge improperly charged the jury with regard to the onus of proof.
The judge had been requisitioned on the matter but it was “never touched upon subsequently”.
President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan, who sat with Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the Court would reserve judgment to a date “as soon as possible”.
