But, Mr Justice Barry White has described a victim impact statement from the Mahon family as “disingenuous in the extreme”.

He made the remark during the sentence hearing of Ronnie Dunbar, aka Ronnie McManus, yesterday, Monday.. Mr Justice White said he needed time to consider the sentence and adjourned the case to Friday morning.

Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, read a brief statement made by Melissa’s mother, Mary Mahon, on behalf of the Mahon family. In it Mrs Mahon said that she had attempted suicide but was saved by her husband, Frederick Mahon.

The statement also revealed that Melissa’s closest sister, Leanna, had taken an overdose and another sister, Yvonne, had slashed herself.

Mrs Mahon said in the state-ment that there had been an emotional impact on her entire family in Ireland and England. “She was my baby and our whole life has been torn apart”. Mary and Frederick Mahon and members of the Mahon family were present in court for the hearing.

Mr Justice White asked the prosecution to tell him how the Mahon family had behaved in the time between Melissa’s disappearance in September 2006 and the discovery of her remains in February 2008 at Lough Gill.

Detective Inspector John O’Reilly told Ms Kennedy that because Melissa was in the care of the Health Service Executive at the time she went missing, they felt that she was the HSE’s responsibility.

He said the family refused to give statements to gardai in relation to Melissa’s disappearance despite being asked to on a number of occasions. He said that the family felt able to make state-ments only at an advanced stage of the investigation.

He agreed with Mr Justice White that the Mahons had maintained a pretence that Melissa was in England. Mary Mahon had told gardai that “par-ties” had given her information about her daughter’s whereabouts but she refused to say who those parties were.

Mr Justice White said that he could not prevent prosecution counsel from reading the victim impact statement. He said he found it “disingenuous in the extreme” in light of the lack of co-operation from the family in the early days of the investigation.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending drew parallels in yesterday’s sentencing hearing between this case and the case of Wayne O’Donoghue who was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of 11 year old Robert Holohan in 2005 and who was given a four-year sentence for the crime.

However the prosecuting counsel said this case could be distinguished from the O’Donoghue case in that there was a high level of remorse displayed by O’Donoghue.

Ronald McManus (44), of Rathbraughan Park, Sligo, denied the murder of Melissa and denied threatening to kill his daughter Samantha on dates between September 14 and 30, 2006.

A Central Criminal Court jury found him not guilty of making the threat and not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, following a five week trial.

 

<-- Go Back