Life for killer of Swiss student

Manuela’s father, Mr Hans-Pieter Riedo, read a victim impact statement, telling the court that he and his wife, Arlette, had lost their angel.

Manuela had arrived in Ireland three days before her death. She was part of a group of 43 Swiss students who were learning English in Galway.

Her father told the court that it was “her first trip without us, her parents.”

“Manuela would have soon turned 18 and we wanted to gradually let her discover the world on her own. We had heard only good things about Ireland and thus we had no misgivings about sending her to this beautiful country.

“Before she left, she said that she hoped to get through the two weeks without feeling homesick, and that the trip would be a test for future, longer trips.”

Mr Justice Barry White told the court that he was in “complete agreement” with the verdict.

“And every right-minded person who has read of this case would agree on that verdict,” he said.

He also expressed his sympathies to Manuela’s parents.

“And in expressing my sympathies I have no doubt I am also expressing the sympathies of every right-minded citizen in the country,” he said.

Mr Justice White said that the court service had received correspondence addressed to Mr and Mrs Riedo, which expresses sympathy with them.

He also said that he hopes that they can “find it in their hearts to forgive the Irish nation.”

Mr Justice White said that he trusts that the guilty man has “not been unmoved by the evidence given by Mr Riedo of the devastating impact of [his] criminal behaviour.”

He also said that “one often loses sight when somebody loses one’s life violently; that person is somebody’s son or daughter, somebody’s brother or sister, somebody’s grandparent, or somebody’s child.”

The body of Ms Riedo was found in an area of wasteland beside a pedestrian walkway known as ‘The Line’, close to the Lough Atalia area of Galway city.

She was naked from the waist down, partially covered by her coat, which was secured by a rock. Her clothes were scattered in the bushes.

The court heard that Barry has a substantial number of previous convictions, including convictions for sexual assault, violent disorder and criminal damage.

Supt P.J. Durcan told the court that Barry was imprisoned for two years in October 1998 after he had broken into the house of an elderly person.

“This person had sight in just one eye and as a result of an assault by Barry lost sight in the other eye,” he said.

Supt Durcan also said that Barry was convicted of violent disorder and sentenced to five years imprisonment in November 1997 after an incident in July 1996 when a Tipperary man, Colm Phelan, was murdered in Galway city.

Supt Durcan said that Barry has been in trouble with the law from an early age.

During the trial, the court heard evidence from State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy that Manuela had died from strangulation.

She said that Manuela could have been “grabbed” with an arm-lock from behind or a forearm could have been pressed into her neck from the front.

Prof Cassidy also described a “gaping wound” to Manuela’s left groin.

She said that this “unusual” injury was “undoubtedly caused after death” and that the skin was “removed using a sharp object, most likely a knife.”

Manuela had also suffered a bump and laceration to the back of the head, as well as superficial lacerations, small tears and an abrasion around the opening of the vagina.

Manuela had arrived in Galway, where she was studying English with fellow Swiss students, three days earlier.

She was staying with a family in Renmore, outside Galway city.

The court heard that she walked into Galway city on Sunday afternoon with her friend, Azaria Maurer and that they walked back to Renmore later that evening along ‘The Line.’

The Line is a shortcut along a railway track between Renmore and Galway city.

Manuela met Azaria again that night and they went to the King’s Head pub.

They met again on Monday morning and walked along ‘The Line’ to language school and that afternoon went to the King’s Head and met their friends.

That evening, they walked back to Renmore and went to their host families, after arranging to meet once again that night in the King’s Head.

The court heard that was the last time Azaria saw Manuela.

Martin Tierney, father of the house where Manuela was staying, told the court that Manuela showed him a map of Galway on the Monday evening before she was murdered.

He said that he “advised her against walking into town by the railway.”

The next morning, her body was found.

Gardaí arrived on the scene and searched the area.

One of the buttons was missing from Manuela’s coat, which was draped over the upper half of her body, and a black button was found on the pathway above where her body was found.

Forensic tests showed that the button visually matched the buttons of Manuela’s coat and that the remaining threads on the coat appeared to have been pulled.

Gardai also found a used condom “snagged on a bush.”

Later, during forensic tests, Barry’s DNA was found inside the condom.

A mixed DNA profile was found on the outside of the condom, containing DNA from both Barry and Manuela.

Eight days after the murder, Barry gave a statement to gardaí. He denied being near the area where Manuela’s body was found.

However, records of mobile phone traffic related to Barry’s phone number showed that calls from his mobile phone bounced off a mast in the Lough Atalia area on the night of her death.

Barry’s brother had told the court that he met him outside Supermacs that night sometime after 8p.m.

During the trial, Barry admitted killing Manuela but claimed her death was “accidental.”

He also pleaded guilty to stealing a camera and a mobile phone belonging to Manuela. Gardaí searching Barry’s house in the day’ after the murder found the phone underneath Barry’s bed.

Eleven days after her murder, he sold the phone to his sister’s boyfriend.

Mr Justice White sentenced Barry to five years each for the theft of the camera and of the phone, both sentences to run concurrently with the life sentence.

He said he was conscious of what had been said in relation to Barry’s “troubled upbringing” but that when it comes to passing sentence on the offences he pleaded guilty to, the circumstances in which these offences happened could not be ignored.