A 26-year-old Laois man jailed for life as a teenager for hammering a boy to death will be released in less than two years, after his trial judge reviewed his sentence.

Darren Goodwin, formerly of Graigue, Mountmellick, was 16 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the 2003 murder of 14-year-old Darragh Conroy.

Due to his age, the life sentence was not mandatory. However, Mr Justice Barry White used his discretion in imposing it, after hearing all the details, including that Goodwin had ‘wanted to kill someone’.

A jury had found Goodwin guilty of the crime following a trial at the Central Criminal court in July 2004. He had pleaded not guilty to the murder at Briar Lane Moutmellick on 11 November 2003.

Darragh Conroy’s mother had told the court that she had been searching for her only child for hours that night, ringing the phone she had bought him just weeks earlier so that they could stay in touch.

His body was found on waste ground in Smithsfield, Mountmellick shortly before midnight. He had suffered six separate blows to his head, five of which were inflicted in rapid succession with considerable force while he was lying on the ground.

State Pathologist Marie Cassidy said the schoolboy’s skull "had been broken up and was like a jigsaw with some of the pieces fallen out of the wounds".

The prosecution case rested on the evidence of several friends and acquaintances of the accused who testified that he had been talking about killing someone the week beforehand and had admitted to the murder on the night in question.

One classmate testified that Goodwin had said: "Jesus, I’d love to kill someone, someone that no one would care about, like Darragh Conory".

Another witness testified that the accused admitted to the murder the evening of the killing, saying that he had hit the deceased in the head with a hammer.

Goodwin’s grandmother testified that her grandson had asked her for a hammer that evening but that she couldn’t find one to give him.

The trial heard that Goodwin had met his father for the first time shortly before he moved in with him, about six months before the attack. The teenager had attempted suicide in September 2003.

When passing sentence ten years ago, Mr Justice White said that Goodwin’s psychological reports showed that he was a danger to society and certainly a danger to his father.

He had said the correct sentence for the ‘pre-meditated, brutal, callous murder’ was life imprisonment, but said that he would review it in a decade.

That unusual review took place yesterday (Thursday), despite the DPP asking for an adjournment to acquire more reports.

Goodwin’s father, David Horan, testified that he and his wife had moved to another town so that members of the Conroy family would not have to face seeing their son if he was released to live with them.

He said that they had rented a house with a separate apartment for their son as he was no-longer 15, the age he was when he went into custody. Mr Horan said his boss had agreed to offer his son an apprenticeship in his workplace.

He said that he had previously approached the prison authorities with the concern that his son wasn’t receiving the psychological services he needed, but that he had got nowhere.

Clinical Psychologist Dr Kevin Lamb testified that it was difficult to assess Goodwin as he had committed the crime at the age of 15, before his mind had fully developed.

He said he determined that his risk for future violence would be low, but with a significant caveat. A big part of this was his need for forensic psychotherapy twice a week, he said.

He told Mr Justice White that he would need about two years of treatment. He said that he was not confident that such services would be provided in his current situation, but said that it might be of benefit were the judge to direct it.

This is what Mr Justice White did, fixing a release date of July 1st 2016, but directing that Goodwin receive the services of a forensic psychotherapist twice a week while in prison.

He said he was not satisfied that the issue of remorse had been fully addressed.

Dressed in a black jacket and blue jeans, Goodwin stepped into the witness box to enter a bond to be of good behaviour and fulfil other conditions on his release.

He spoke to his parents before and after proceedings.

Darragh Conroy’s parents were also present in court but were not asked to testify.

Online Editors