Following the conviction of Kieran Greene of the murder of his mother-in-law Patricia O'Connor, Prime Time's Barry Cummins reflects on a gruesome case like no other.
Kieran Greene was standing at a farmgate in Co Wexford when he was arrested on suspicion of murdering Patricia O'Connor.
It was after 7.30pm on Tuesday 13 June 2017 and two detectives, David Connolly and Kieron O'Neill, had just found the shallow grave that Greene had told them he had dug with his bare hands and a stick.
The two officers had driven Greene from Rathfarnham Garda Station all the way to the field which lies halfway between Kilmuckridge and Curracloe.
I’ve thought about that journey over the course of the trial at the Central Criminal Court. What must the two experienced detectives have been thinking on a most unusual journey?
Kieran Greene was travelling voluntarily with them, he was offering to show them where he said he had buried his mother-in-law’s body.
The two detectives by now knew that a number of body parts had been found in the Wicklow Mountains. However, the word coming from gardaí in Bray was that the initial expert forensic advice was that the body parts appeared to be a male in his 20s.
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That obviously didn’t tally with what Kieran Greene was telling them. He was saying the body was that of Patricia O’Connor, a 61-year-old woman who had been reported missing by members of her family two weeks previously.
The day before he travelled on that most unusual journey Kieran Greene had presented himself to Rathfarnham Garda Station.
He approached the counter and then sat on a wooden seat with his head in his hands. He looked distressed and told an officer he had done "something terrible".
Over the course of the next two days he made four voluntary statements in Rathfarnham Station, which culminated in him agreeing to travel with detectives to the location over 100km away where he said he had temporarily hidden Patricia’s body.
Greene was giving instructions as the three drove down the N11. He was going by memory, he knew exactly where he was going.
He had travelled the journey twice in the recent past – the first time when he drove Patricia’s body in her own Toyota Corolla down to the burial site in Co Wexford and over a week after that when he drove down, disinterred her body and dismembered her.
He had then driven back to Dublin through Military Road in the Wicklow Mountains and at nine locations he dispersed the 15 parts of Patricia’s body that would later be found.
On the journey down the N11 Kieran Green eventually directed the gardaí to turn left and past Boolavogue and Oulart. The three men found themselves driving the R742, just north of Blackwater.
Here Greene told the officers to pull in at the entrance to a field. He told the detectives that in this field he had buried Patricia's body after digging a shallow grave using his bare hands and a stick.
"In the stunning location of Glenmacnass Waterfall, where the power and beauty of nature is a sight to behold, four separate body parts were found in four different locations"
It was in the same field, he said, that he had then dismembered the body after digging up Patricia’s body fearing that a local farmer might find the body.
Greene directed David Connolly and Kieron O’Neill to go down about 50ft along the left-hand side of the field where he said he had dug the grave.
Greene waited at the gate. He was there voluntarily and good practice meant that if this field was about to be declared a crime scene it could not be contaminated.
The two detectives ventured down the field, it was still bright and they soon saw signs of soil disturbance. They looked closer and saw a human hair in the soil. Within seconds Kieran Greene was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Within days it was confirmed that all 15 body parts found over a 30km stretch of the Wicklow Mountains were Patricia O’Connor.
The Wicklow Mountains have borne witness to many horrific murders, but never was there a case like this. The body parts had not been concealed in the mountains, they had been strewn a short distance from Military Road, and seemed to have been deposited in a rush, in a panic.
The first discovery was made on the evening of Saturday 10 June by a family having a picnic. They spotted what turned out to be part of a torso.
The next day further body parts were discovered a significant distance away, including the upper part of a torso. Gardaí enlisted the help of the Army in deploying a large team of soldiers to assist in the massive search.
The situation was surreal. In the stunning location of Glenmacnass Waterfall, where the power and beauty of nature is a sight to behold, four separate body parts were found in four different locations.
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One of the most important finds was the discovery of a human head and hands in a plastic bag. This allowed for a cause of death to be established. Patricia O'Connor suffered fatal blows to her head. The cause of her death was blunt force trauma.
Amid the sadness and horror in the Wicklow Mountains over the course of those days, there was also a quiet dignity about the search process. As each body part was located, a hearse would arrive, and the body part was slowly driven away for forensic examination at Dublin City Morgue.
In Co Kilkenny, where Patricia O’Connor is originally from, some of her family were still unaware that she might be the murder victim whose remains were being found in the mountains.
Initial news reports suggested that forensic experts thought the first body parts found were male. But it was now emerging that the body was female. Patricia’s loved ones were learning that her son-in-law was at Rathfarnham station confessing to murdering his mother-in-law.
"Through the verdicts now delivered at the Central Criminal Court, Patricia O'Connor and her loved ones have got a measure of justice"
Patricia is one of a family of 13, and her murder has deeply affected her brothers and sisters and wider family. In June 2017, disbelief turned to shock and turned to horror at what had happened. The trauma was compounded when Patricia's son-in-law was charged with her murder.
There are many things that have struck me about this most unsettling case as the evidence emerged over the past six weeks.
I can’t imagine what Patricia’s son Richard must feel. Who could? Richard became concerned that his mother couldn’t be found when she failed to call him on his birthday at the end of May 2017.
We now know that by then Patricia was dead and her body buried in the field off the R742 in Co Wexford. But Richard had no idea and was concerned enough to go with his father Gus and report Patricia as a missing person.
We now know that at that stage Gus O’Connor already knew his wife had been killed by Kieran Greene. Gus will be sentenced in April for impeding the garda investigation.
Throughout the trial at the Central Criminal Court, the voice of Patricia O’Connor wasn’t heard often. A depiction emerged from statements made by some of the accused that were not flattering to Patricia.
Her son Richard and his wife Martina, and Patricia’s siblings sat quietly and frustrated, unable to say anything to tell the court about the Patricia O’Connor they knew.
But the photos of Patricia at her son's wedding in 2012 - images which her loved ones have kindly passed to RTÉ - show Patricia linking Richard, and beaming as she watches the happy couple. Patricia was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a sister.
In a special Prime Time report to be broadcast on Tuesday we will show video footage of Patricia. You will hear her voice and see a loving grandmother. If a picture speaks a thousand words, the video footage of Patricia is beyond adequate description.
Knowing the horror that would befall Patricia in May 2017, the desecration of her body and the cover-up that followed, makes the video of Patricia recorded in the family home that would become a murder scene all the more poignant.
Through the verdicts now delivered at the Central Criminal Court, Patricia O’Connor and her loved ones have got a measure of justice.
I had the pleasure of meeting a number of her family who miss her dearly and who say the manner of her full life was in total contrast to the shocking nature of her death.
May she rest in peace.
A special Prime Time report on the solving of the murder of Patricia O’Connor will be broadcast this Tuesday on RTÉ One at 10.15pm.
