Anger as man charged with murder of Christy Daly

There were angry scenes at Tullamore District Court today as a man was charged with the murder of Christy Daly in Co Offaly last December.

Keelan Hand (23), with an address at Bridge Street, Kilcormac, Co Offaly, is the third man to be charged with Mr Daly's murder.

Det Garda Patrick Cleary said Mr Hand "had nothing to say" when charged with the murder this morning in Tullamore Garda station.

Insp Kieran Keyes successfully applied to have the defendant remanded in custody to Cloverhill District Court.

Judge Catherine Staines granted legal aid and remanded the defendant in custody to Cloverhill Prison to appear before Cloverhill District Court next Wednesday.

Following the brief hearing, Elaine Daly - a daughter of the murdered man - stood up in court and there was an angry exchange with Mr Hand.

Ms Daly was brought before Judge Staines who told her that very serious matters were being dealt with in the court. “I can hold you in contempt for seven days,” she warned. However, following an apology, Judge Staines decided to take no further action.

A small crowd outside the courthouse heckled Mr Hand as he was taken away by gardaí.

Mr Daly’s body was discovered in a drain close to a burnt-out caravan and two burnt out cars at Bog Road, Kilbride, Clara on January 7th, 2014.

A postmortem revealed the 47-year-old father-of-six had been shot a number of times in the upper body. Gardaí believe he was murdered on December 29th.

Two men aged 20 and 23 remain in custody, having been charged in February with Mr Daly’s murder.

The murder sparked a major Garda investigation involving gardaí from the Laois/Offaly Garda Division, supported by gardaí from specialist units including the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) and the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and augmented by local detective units and Divisional Search Teams.

In the course of the investigation to date, 50 searches have been carried out and 135 people have been interviewed. To date, eight people have been arrested in connection with the investigation.