SOLICITORS FOR Dublin pharmacist Karen Walsh, who was found guilty on Tuesday of the Christmas Day 2008 murder of Newry pensioner Maire Rankin, are considering lodging an appeal against her conviction.
Walsh was sentenced to life imprisonment at Belfast Crown Court by Mr Justice Hart for the murder of Mrs Rankin (81). The judge is to decide later this month on the minimum term she will serve, after hearing probation, victim impact and other reports, as well as pleas on her behalf.
Mr Justice Hart told Walsh, who is married to Dublin accountant Richard Durkin, she should be “under no illusion” that it will be a lengthy sentence.
Throughout the trial Walsh, a 45-year Galway native who owns a pharmacy on George’s Street, Dublin, protested that she did not murder Mrs Rankin, declaring to Mr Justice Hart as she was led from the dock on Tuesday, “I am totally innocent”.
Solicitor Conor Houston of John J Rice solicitors in Belfast, who represented Walsh, indicated that there may be an appeal. “It is being considered but obviously we will not be in a position to do anything until after sentencing,” he said yesterday.
One of Mrs Rankin’s daughters, meanwhile, has recalled how some months before the murder Walsh called late to the victim’s home in Newry with a bottle of whiskey. It is similar to the manner in which she visited Mrs Rankin on the night of the murder – and afterwards the family advised her not to let her in again because Mrs Rankin was made so uncomfortable by the visit.
Walsh was convicted of bludgeoning Mrs Rankin to death and sexually assaulting her after visiting her at her home at about 11.30pm on Christmas Eve in 2008. Walsh and her husband who stayed in the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin during the working week had bought a house beside Mrs Rankin 14 months earlier. Evidence was given of Walsh drinking most of a bottle of vodka early on Christmas morning during or before the assault.
Emily Rankin said yesterday she would not be surprised if there were an appeal. But nonetheless the predominant emotion still felt by the extended Rankin family was one of relief.
She said some months before the assault Walsh visited her mother late at night at her home in Newry in similar fashion, but that time with a bottle of whiskey.
“She came in late one night, persuaded Mummy to let her in, and she said she brought her a present of a bottle of whiskey. Mummy was very uncomfortable with that,” said Ms Rankin.
“She wanted Mummy to have a drink with her but she did not really drink apart from an odd glass of wine. She stayed a long time and Mummy just found it uncomfortable. Mummy would not have wanted to have been staying up late drinking with people – Mummy did not have a drink.”
“Mummy was not afraid of her or anything; she just made her uneasy . . . we said, ‘Don’t let her in again’. But we don’t know what happened that night; we don’t know why [she let Ms Walsh into her home],” added Ms Rankin.
“She tried to make out a case that she was a good friend, but she wasn’t a good friend; she was a neighbour that Mummy barely knew and was uneasy of, but would not have been rude to.”
Ms Rankin said the family was now preparing a victim impact report for Mr Justice Hart before he decides the minimum sentence.
At a bail custody hearing in the Belfast High Court two years ago it also emerged that Walsh allegedly told another prisoner she would pay up to £1,500 for a fake passport if a conviction looked likely. That hearing also heard how Walsh was also said to have undergone minor cosmetic surgery and asked about having more work done. Gardaí contacted the PSNI investigation team to say that since Walsh was first released on bail in February 2009 she had undergone cosmetic surgery.
At the time a PSNI witness was asked was he suggesting Mr Walsh was “going to try and have major plastic surgery to try and change her appearance”? The detective replied: “I don’t know what the context was.”
