42 years later, manslaughter conviction ruled miscarriage of justice
42 years after he was jailed for killing civil servant Una Lynskey the Court of Criminal Appeal has found Martin Conmey's manslaughter conviction was a miscarriage of justice.
The 62-year-old won his case after it emerged key evidence had been suppressed by the state.
19 year old Una Lynskey was last seen getting off a bus about half-a-mile from her home on Porterstown Lane in Ratoath, Co Meath on the evening of October 12, 1971.
The following year Martin Conmey, then aged 20 and his friend Dick Donnelly were convicted of her manslaughter. Donnelly's conviction was overturned on appeal.
In Conmey's case the prosecution relied on the testimony of 3 witnesses that placed the accused and his friends in a car near the scene but in 2010 it emerged that these same witnesses had initially given quite different statements to gardaí.
No explanation has ever been given by the state for suppressing important evidence but one of the relevant witnesses Sean Reilly now says he was physically assaulted and pressurised by gardaí into changing his statement.
Martin Conmey has welcomed today's finding that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice.
