A 46-year-old woman has been found guilty of the murders of two men who were shot dead and whose bodies were found on an island on Lough Sheelin eleven years ago.
Ruth Lawrence, who is originally from Clontarf in Dublin but with an address at Patricks Cottage, Ross, Mountnugent had denied murdering 33-year-old Anthony Keegan and 32-year-old Eoin O'Connor between the dates of 22 April and 26 May 2014.
Ruth Lawrence has been found guilty of murdering two men, whose bodies were found on an island on Lough Sheelin. The 45-year-old, from Clontarf in Dublin, had denied murdering Eoin O’Connor and Anthony Keegan over a significant drug debt owed by her boyfriend.
During the trial, a protected witness told the jury Ms. Lawrence told her she shot Mr O’Connor but it “went wrong.” She’ll be handed a life sentence when the case returns to court next month.
After deliberating for close to 14 hours, the judge asked for silence in the packed courtroom before the jury returned with its verdicts. A number of options were open to the jurors but in the end, they convicted Ruth Lawrence of murdering both men. She was tried on the basis of joint enterprise.
It was the prosecution’s case that she and her boyfriend, Neville Van der Westhuizen, lured Eoin O’Connor and Anthony Keegan to their death. A protected witness gave evidence of Lawrence confiding in her that she had shot Mr O’Connor but that it “went wrong.”
The prosecution contended that Mr Van der Westhuizen then took over. Because they were acting as a team, the jurors were invited to convict her of murder – and they did, by majority verdict. Friends and family members sobbed and embraced each other in the public gallery. Ruth Lawrence remained emotionless. She will be handed a life sentence when the case returns to court next month.
