COURT SKETCH:It was all over in less than 10 minutes as a guilty verdict was returned and a life sentence imposed, writes Alison Healy
THE KNOCK on the jury room door came at 3.43pm and was barely heard by the large groups of people who were standing around Court 3, waiting and talking. But all eyes rose when the court registrar went to the door and quickly returned, nodding at the defence legal team.
Whispers shot around the court room, people scrambled for their seats and the McLaughlin family looked around them worriedly.
Brian Kearney, dressed in a dark blue suit and blue and white tie, returned to the courtroom and sat impassively waiting for the jury to file in. They had deliberated for five hours and 24 minutes.
He held his head high as they took their seats opposite him, his hand placed flat on the bench. Mr Justice Barry White cautioned the court that he wanted no "emotional outbursts, no triumphant gestures" when the verdict was given.
He needn't have worried though as the guilty verdict was followed by almost total silence. Then Siobhán Kearney's sisters began to sob quietly, their shoulders shaking as they held on to each other.
One young female jury member rubbed her eyes and looked distressed as the result began to sink in.
The distress was more audible from Kearney's family. His daughter Aoife, from a previous relationship, cried into her father's shoulder. His brother Niall stroked her hair and rubbed her shoulder. The sobs of his sister Laurie grew louder as she was comforted by relatives. But Kearney continued to look straight ahead, betraying no emotion.
As Mr Justice White released the jurors from jury duty for life, the young jury member began to cry.
Then the judge asked Kearney to stand as he imposed the mandatory life sentence. It was too much for Aoife who clung desolately to her father's arm as he stood up and faced the judge. He showed no reaction when he received the life sentence.
It was all over in less than 10 minutes. Well-wishers gathered around the McLaughlin family as Aoife buried her face in her green scarf and wept soundlessly. Within minutes gardaí and prison officers arrived to escort her father from court and the crying grew louder.
The McLaughlin family was crossing the car park of the Four Courts when a man ran up shouting that Kearney was about to get into the prison van.
"That's great, I want to see this," said one of the McLaughlin sisters.
An expectant crowd gathered around the waiting prison van. Barristers and court staff gathered at windows above, peering down curiously as the crowd grew.
Finally Kearney emerged and went quickly into the van. "You'll be eating porridge tomorrow," shouted a passer-by, but the McLaughlins stood silently. A guard passed a black overnight bag into the van and the doors closed.
"They took his tie off him," a friend of the McLaughlins noted as the van pulled off. There was silence and then someone began to clap. Siobhán Kearney's sisters and brother joined in and the clapping grew faster and louder. "We shouldn't be clapping," Brighid McLaughlin admonished them, then the sisters turned and went out to face the media.