Dead Galway publican's family cries with relief as man he employed as bouncer found guilty of manslaughter

Jurors took just two hours and 22 minutes to find Marian Lingurar Jr,(24), with an address in Loughgeorge, Claregalway, guilty of the manslaughter of Oughterard publican and teacher, John Kenny(56), who was found badly beaten, tied up and left to die alone on the floor of the ladies toilet in his pub on September 25, 2011.

Jurors also unanimously found him guilty of a second charge of trespassing at Mr Kenny’s pub the same night with intent to commit theft.

He had absconded from the jurisdiction in 2011, but was arrested in Cork last May and brought before Galway Circuit Criminal Court where he was remanded in custody, pending his trial this month.

Sentence in the case has been adjourned to May 8, for the preparation of victim impact reports from Mr Kenny’s family, as well as a probation report and prison governor’s report regarding the accused.

Mr Kenny’s daughter, Gillian, and his wife, Kathleen cried with relief as the unanimous guilty verdicts were read out. They were comforted by Mr Kenny’s brother, Garda Jim Kenny and other family members.

Galway and Connemara-based Gardaí - some of whom have since retired - and who worked since 2011 to bring the accused to justice, shook hands warmly with each other and with the family.

Lingurar Jr who declined to give evidence during the trial was led away in custody by prison officers, followed by two female family members.

During the trial, he had denied any involvement in the assault and robbery of a relatively small amount cash from Mr Kenny’s pocket, by a gang of men who arrived at the pub that night.

He claimed John Kenny was his friend and he liked him because he had given him a job as a bouncer. He said he was sad to hear he had been killed.

He told gardaí he did not know those involved and claimed he was at home in bed when others went to Oughterard, viciously assaulted Mr Kenny, robbed a ‘wad’ of notes from his pocket, tied his hands behind his back using fairy lights from the bar, and left him lying face down on the toilet floor to die.

Mr Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, told the jury on the first day of the trial on January 15 that Mr Kenny had been left the family pub by his late mother and following an amicable separation from his wife, Kathleen, in the 1990s he moved in there to live.

The couple remained very good friends down through the years and were devoted to their daughter, Gillian.

He said Mr Kenny was held in very high regard at Presentation College, Athenry, where he had taught for many years and he only opened Kenny’s pub at weekends. The pub attracted a young clientele and Mr Kenny enjoyed a drink himself.

A man named Florin Fitzpatrick and the accused man’s father, Marian Lingurar Sr., worked in the pub at weekends. The trial heard John Kenny could not get rid of them and he was afraid of them.

He said the accused, who was aged 16 in 2011, had worked as a bouncer in the pub the night Mr Kenny died.

Mr Gageby said it was the prosecution’s case that the accused, having gained Mr Kenny’s trust plotted with others to rob Kenny’s pub after it closed on the night of September 25.

He said the accused got a lift back to Galway with his father after finishing work along with the barman, Florin Fitzpatrick, at 1.30am, but then he returned to Oughterard at 2.20am and stayed there for 40 minutes.

Mr Gageby said it was the State’s case the accused travelled back to Oughterard in the early hours of the morning to visit an assault on Mr Kenny and rob him.

He told jurors it was a ‘joint enterprise’ as other people were involved in the attack as well as the accused.

BACKGROUND

A local man found Mr Kenny’s phone across the road from the pub at 5pm on the Sunday evening and he rang the last number dialled to contact the owner. It was John Kenny’s phone and the number he rang was Gillian’s.

She and her mother went in a panic to the pub where they found the front door ajar. They screamed John’s name but got no answer. They went out onto the street and asked local man, Myles Upton, to come into the pub with them.

Mr Upton told the trial he noticed a chair had been wedged under the handle on the ladies toilet door, preventing anyone from opening it from the inside. He took the chair away and found Mr Kenny’s body lying on the floor.

There was a green jacket wrapped around his head. He was lying in a hunched position, face down with his hands tied tightly behind his back with cable. His trousers had been pulled down around his thighs.

Mr Gageby said a post mortem revealed Mr Kenny had suffered extensive injuries to his head, neck and trunk, both front and back. Multiple fractures were found, front and back, consistent with blows from a large object or kicks.

Cause of death was deemed to be: “Blunt force trauma and positional asphyxia.”

He explained that when a person’s body is placed in such a position at Mr Kenny’s was, they would find it difficult to breathe. He said it was also the case that Mr Kenny was intoxicated and that didn’t help him.

The trial heard there were no CCTV cameras inside or outside Kenny’s pub to capture the movements and identities of the person or persons responsible for John Kenny’s death that night.

'THE BANK'

Gardaí found the premises in a run-down state. The outside looked derelict and some of the upstairs windows were rotting. Inside, the bar had no credit or debit card facilities and the business was run on a ‘cash only’ basis.

John Kenny didn’t trust Florin Fitzpatrick or the people he had brought to work in the pub and he regularly took notes from the till during busy nights, rolled them into a ‘wad’ and put them into the front pocket of his jeans, his daughter Gillian told the trial.

At the end of each night when the pub was empty and he was alone, he would put the wad of cash in a safe in a front room at the premises, which had been jokingly christened ‘The Bank’ by family members.

Mr Gageby said just €17 in coins was found on John Kenny’s body by gardaí the following day. The wad of notes was missing.

His attackers fled, ignorant of the fact that a bunch of keys containing a key to open ‘the bank’ in the room next-door was right beside the till in the bar. The safe contained €25,000 in cash.

MANHUNT

Gardaí launched an investigation and manhunt after Mr Kenny’s body was discovered that Sunday evening, September 25, 2011.

They interviewed the accused in the presence of his mother at their home in Loughgeorge just six hours after Mr Kenny’s body was found.

Florin Fitzpatrick presented himself for questioning at Galway garda station later that Sunday. Gardaí searched for other suspects and the trial heard two ‘people of interest’ are still being sought.

Mr Gageby said CCTV footage, coupled with phone data retrieved from the accused man’s phone and from other suspect’s phones last year, using Cellebrite forensic data retrieval software - which had not been available in 2011 - “clinched it” for the prosecution case.

The phone data, along with CCTV footage - downloaded from numerous premises along the route from Galway city to Oughterard - which linked the movements of the accused (in a car) with phone ‘traffic’ he had with four others suspected of being involved, Mr Gageby said.

The trial heard the accused man’s phone ‘pinged’ off phone masts, giving away his location at all times that night, and placing him in Oughterard between 2am and 3am, the time when gardaí believe Mr Kenny was attacked, even though he told gardaí he was at home in bed at that time with his phone beside him.

Mr Gageby said the accused had also told gardaí he had not sent or received calls or texts on his phone for the entire night but Cellebrite revealed his phone was in constant contact with the four other phones belonging to other individuals believed to be involved in planning the assault and robbery at the pub.

“There is overwhelming evidence to place him and his phone in Oughterard at a place where he had no business at that time. He returned at 2.18am with intent to go into the pub and steal,” Mr Gageby said.

“The pattern of phone movement is all there and it’s backed up by the movements of the suspect car on the CCTV," he said.

What is the part he played? The answer is, he gained Mr Kenny’s trust and there was a plot to rob him and disable him so he couldn’t phone his wife, daughter or brother, who is a Garda.

He (Mr Kenny) was treated in a way where he was disabled, tied up, face down with a lot of drink taken. The accused man was part of a common arrangement to rob and to do what was necessary that it not be brought to the attention of the authorities.

“I cannot say that he beat Mr Kenny or used a heavy object to assault him but the inference is he was one of a group of people who did,” Mr Gageby contended.

“There is solid evidence here that establishes where the accused was at the time the crime was committed in Oughterard after the bar closed and that he was up to his armpits in it and played a pivotal part in the commission of it,” Mr Gageby contended.

He said the accused told gardaí there was no one left in the pub after he left with another man shortly after 1am but several local youngsters who had been drinking there that Saturday night told the trial they had seen an Eastern European man sitting at the bar most of the night, watching John Kenny get drunk. He was still there when the last customer left.

One young man, who had gone outside for a smoke as the pub was closing around 12.30am, told the jury he saw another Eastern European man walk across the street and speak to the doorman (the accused). He said they knew each other. They went inside the pub together and locked the door, he said.

A couple, who were the last to leave said they noticed two very big Eastern European men in the pub as they were leaving. Mr Kenny was very drunk, they said.

Mr Gageby said there was no evidence of a forced entry at the premises.

“So how did the people who did this get in? The answer is quite simple; they walked in the front door,” Mr Gageby said.

Kathleen and Gillian Kenny told the trial the deceased had always been a kind, warm, fun-loving person but in the weeks leading up to his death something had been troubling him and he had been tearful and withdrawn.

Kathleen Kenny said he told her other men had taken over the pub and he had no control over them. She and her mother believed money was being extorted from him.

“I know to this day who is responsible...There is no remorse. We are still here looking for justice, seven years later,” she said.

In his closing address to the jury, Mr Colman Fitzgerald SC defending, told the jury there was no evidence of any sort which linked his client to the terrible crime visited on Mr Kenny. He said the prosecution case was entirely circumstantial.