The Supreme Court has refused to grant permission to a Tipperary man to appeal his conviction for the murder of 90-year-old Waterford farmer, Paddy Lyons, in 2017.
Ross Outram, Ferryland, Waterford Road, Clonmel, Tipperary was found guilty of the murder of Paddy Lyons, Loughleagh, Ballysaggart, Lismore, Waterford at an unknown period between February 23rd and 26th 2017.
Lyons, who was a retired farmer and lived alone, was discovered beaten to death in his home - with multiple blows to his head and neck, believed to have been administered by a blunt object.
The 90-year-old also had fractures in his hip, jaw and ribs.
According to the Irish Examiner, Pathologist Marie Bolster ruled that the cause of Mr. Lyons' death was as a result of the blunt force trauma to his body with traumatic brain injury and shock due to the fractures he suffered.
Ross Outram was found guilty of murder by a Central Criminal Court jury in 2019.
He lost his appeal against his conviction in the Court of Appeal in July, arguing that there was no proof that he caused the injury that led to the pensioner's death.
Three Supreme Court judges found that Outram's application didn't meet required constitutional criteria for leave of appeal to the highest court to be approved.
Outram questioned before the Court if on the evidence of the case, whether the injuries sustained during the attack contributed in 'more than a minimal way' to Mr. Lyons' death.
The Court found that the accused had not advanced any viable argument to suggest that the trial judge had erred or that the Court of Appeal did similar in its' findings on that matter.
The Supreme Court sees no grounds to find that the trial judge should have gone further than he did in instructing the jury to acquit if they were in doubt as to whether the effects of the assault were related to any subsequent fall.
