A WITNESS in the State’s case against Martin Conmey for the killing of a young woman almost 40 years ago claims he was assaulted and interrogated by gardaí who “put words” in his mouth.
A sworn statement taken from Seán Reilly (62), Co Meath, concerning what he said he saw on the evening Una Lynskey (19) vanished, was considered “a keystone” for the 1971 conviction of Mr Conmey for manslaughter.
Mr Reilly told the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday that he was “punched” and “prodded” by gardaí and was made “to feel” as though he was a suspect.
He was testifying before the three-judge appeal court on the second day of the hearing of an application taken by Mr Conmey as part of his attempt to have his manslaughter conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Conmey (59), Porterstown Lane, Ratoath, claims “newly discovered facts” will prove he was not responsible for Ms Lynskey’s death in 1971.
Her body was discovered on December 10th, 1971, in a ditch in a remote part of the Dublin mountains, two months after she vanished while returning home after work. A postmortem failed to establish how she had died.
Lawyers for Mr Conmey claim that “newly discovered” facts include the existence of “earlier” contradictory statements from witnesses and a previously unknown allegation of violence and “oppression” by investigating gardaí against one of these, Mr Reilly.
In 1972, Mr Conmey and Dick Donnelly were convicted of Ms Lynskey’s manslaughter. A year later, both men appealed and Mr Donnelly’s conviction was overturned, but Mr Conmey served three years in prison. A third man, Martin Kerrigan, was also suspected of involvement, but he was abducted and killed a short time after Ms Lynskey’s body was discovered.
Mr Reilly told the Court of Criminal Appeal with Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Éamon de Valera, that in late October 1971, he gave two statements to gardaí.
In the first statement, taken on October 20th, Mr Reilly, who was then 23, told gardaí that a car “would have passed” while he was outside his family home on the evening the woman disappeared on Porterstown Lane. He said that at the time it passed, he was sitting in the car of Martin Madden, another “crucial witness” in the original case. The car was “going down towards” the Dublin-Navan Road.
Mr Reilly told the court yesterday it “was dark” as he heard it go by and so it would have been “impossible” to make out who was driving it. He said Mr Madden’s car was parked “way in off the road” and that its rear was facing the lane.
The court heard that four days later, a second statement was taken from Mr Reilly in which he said Mr Madden’s car “had a good view” of Porterstown Lane, that he “was sure” Mr Donnelly was driving it and “almost sure” Mr Kerrigan was in it too. Yesterday Mr Reilly said he made this statement “under interrogation” and that gardaí “put words” in his mouth.
Mr Reilly said gardaí arrived to the building site where he worked and asked that he travel with them to Porterstown Lane. Instead he said he was brought to Trim Garda station where he was questioned for “seven hours”.
He alleged he was punched several times in the shoulder by gardaí who swore at him and told him “to speak up and tell the truth”. He said they wanted “information about Dick Donnelly’s car” and that he told them the car that passed “could” have been his but that he was not in a position to “swear this”.
The hearing continues.