HSE to review Mahon case

Updated: 22:48, Wednesday, 27 May 2009

The HSE has announced it is to carry out a review of how it handled the case of Melissa Mahon after a man was found guilty of killing her.

1 of 2 Ronald McManus Not guilty of threatening to kill his daughter
Ronald McManus
Not guilty of threatening to kill his daughter
2 of 2 Melissa Mahon Strangled in bedroom of Sligo house
Melissa Mahon
Strangled in bedroom of Sligo house

The Health Service Executive has announced it is to carry out a review of how it handled the case of Melissa Mahon after a man was found guilty of killing her.

Ronald McManus, also known as Ronnie Dunbar, of Rathbraughan Park in Sligo, was found not guilty of the teenager's murder, but guilty of her manslaughter.

The trial heard that the 44-year-old strangled the 14-year-old and dumped her body in a river in Co Sligo.

Melissa had been in the care of the State, living voluntarily at a care home in Sligo.

The trial heard she had begun a relationship with Ronald McManus, who allowed her to hide from gardaí and social workers in a vacant house next door.

Her friends said before she went missing that she was pregnant.

A year and half after her disappearance Ronald McManus's teenage daughters told gardaí their father had strangled the teenager in his bedroom and dumped her body in the River Bonnet in Sligo in September 2006.

Her remains were found on the shores of Lough Gill in February 2008 after Mr McManus's daughters told gardaí that their father had killed the teenager.

The defence had argued that the sisters' testimony was 'unreliable and unbelievable' and was not enough to convict him of murder.

The trial lasted five weeks during which McManus denied the charges.

The jury reached a unanimous decision after five and half hours' deliberation over three days.

McManus will be sentenced on 6 July.

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