Eoin Reynolds
A man who was part of a gang that killed a Galway publican during a burglary and then left the country has asked for leave to appeal his conviction.
Marian Lingurar jnr (26) is serving a nine-year prison sentence for his role in the death of John Kenny in 2011. The Court of Appeal heard today that Lingurar did not lodge his appeal within the required time period following his conviction. His barrister Colman Fitzgerald SC told the three-judge court that his client's solicitor thought the appeal had been lodged, but it has since emerged that the appeal lodged related to Lingurar's father, who has the same first name.
Privacy rights
Mr Fitzgerald said the grounds of appeal are "serious" and that justice requires that the appeal be heard. Pointing to one ground, he said the court will need to determine whether his client's privacy rights were breached when gardaí obtained phone records that were used during the trial to establish that Lingurar was not where he claimed to be on the night.
Mr Justice George Birmingham noted that after the offence in 2011 Lingurar broke his bail conditions, attempted to get a travel document, left Ireland and returned under a false name, resulting in his trial being delayed until 2019. He said that in deciding whether to allow the extension he must consider the rights of the victim's family. Patrick Gageby SC for the Director of Public Prosecutions opposed the extension saying that Lingurar had not met the conditions required.
Legal authorities, he said, had established that for an extension to be granted the defence must be able to show that the appeal engages with the evidence and rulings during the trial and the defence must have "some optimism that the appeal would succeed." He said Mr Fitzgerald's submissions were "deficient" in that regard and that the application should be rejected in the interests of justice for the victim's family.
Publican beaten
Lingurar, a Romanian national with former addresses in Loughgeorge, Claregalway, and Blackpool, Cork, was found guilty by a jury in 2019 of the manslaughter of Mr Kenny (56), at Kenny’s pub in Oughterard on September 25th 2011.
The trial had heard evidence that Mr Kenny had been badly beaten, tied up and left to die alone on the floor of the ladies’ toilet in his pub by a gang of men, including Lingurar, who had planned to rob him that night. His wife Kathleen Kenny and their daughter Gillian found his body the following evening.
He had sustained severe injuries to his upper body, consistent with blows from a heavy object and with kicks and punches. His hands had been tied behind his back and a jacket wound tightly around his face and head.
Post-mortem results indicated he would not have died immediately from his injuries and would have had difficulty breathing due to the position in which his body had been left, face-down on the toilet floor.
Lingurar jnr was also found guilty of a second charge of burglary at Mr Kenny’s pub on the same night after it emerged a “wad” of cash had been taken from Mr Kenny’s pocket and also from the till.
