Publican sentenced to life for murder of wife, baby

ONE of the longest murder trials in the history of the State ended last night when a Central Criminal Court jury convicted a former swimming international of the murder of his wife and the infant niece they were trying to adopt.

Frank McCann (36), a publican, showed no emotion as Mr Justice Carney sentenced him to two concurrent terms of life imprisonment for the murder of his wife, Esther, and the 18 month old daughter of his sister. Both died when fire destroyed, their home in Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham, in the early hours of September 4th, 1992.

The jury of six men and six women took just over eight hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts on both counts of murder. Less than half an hour beforehand they had told the court that they could not reach a unanimous verdict and the judge had directed that he would accept a majority verdict of 10-2 or 11-1. However, when the jury returned again shortly after 6.45 p.m., they were unanimous on both counts.

The verdicts brought to an end a nine week trial and an investigation lasting four years.

The first trial in the case in January 1994 was aborted when McCann attempted to set fire to himself in Dublin's Arbour Hill prison.

The second was temporarily adjourned two weeks ago when he suffered an apparent panic attack while giving evidence, but he sat calmly throughout yesterday's proceedings.

His sister Jeannette who was Jessica's mother and his brother Derek were present throughout the final day of the trial and spoke with Esther's family before and after the verdict.

Ms Marian Leonard, a sister of the dead woman, said that she would have moved back to her native Co Waterford if McCann had been found not guilty.

I told little Esther [her daughter] that we wouldn't stay one more night in Dublin if he was freed."

The family was "just glad the four year ordeal was finally over", she added. "There's no feeling of elation. I'm just glad he's not back on the streets and that he's not going back to Butterfield Avenue."