Two men who admitted disposing of the dismembered remains of a 17-year-old boy who was murdered in Co Louth six years ago have been jailed for six years each.
Stephen Carberry, aged 48, with an address at Sandymount in Dublin 4, admitted collecting two bags with the remains of Keane Mulready-Woods from the house in Drogheda where he was killed in January 2020, and dumping one in Dublin.
Carberry, who was on bail at the time, was sentenced to six years consecutive to a sentence for drug dealing he is currently serving.
Today’s six-year sentence will commence at the expiry of that sentence in 2028.
Glen Bride, aged 32 and formerly of Mount Olive Park, Kilbarrack, in Dublin, drove a car with the head and feet of the teenager in the boot before setting it on fire in Dublin’s north inner city.
He was also sentenced to six years in prison to commence today. He is already serving another sentence which expires in April 2027.
Fire Brigade discovered child's remains after car set on fire
Keane was lured to a house in Rathmullan Park in Drogheda on 12 January 2020, where he was murdered and his remains dismembered and put into sports bags.
His killer, Robbie Lawlor, who was involved in the Drogheda feud, was shot dead in Belfast three months later.
Lawlor was in contact with Carberry who arrived at the house the following day and left with two PUMA sports bags containing the remains of the teenager.
Carberry, whose brother Richie had also been murdered as part of the Drogheda feud, put the bags into the boot of a stolen Volvo and drove to Dublin where he dropped one of the bags with the child's remains at Moatview Gardens in Priorswood.
Carberry’s DNA was subsequently found on that bag and he was also in touch with Lawlor.
The second bag with the teenager's head and feet was left in the boot of the car which Carberry parked in Donnycarney in north Dublin.
The following night he brought Bride in a taxi to the car and Bride drove it to a lane near Croke Park and set it on fire.
Dublin Fire Brigade put out the blaze and discovered the child's remains in the boot.
The stolen car was 'a back up vehicle' and was used because the van the gang had originally bought to transport Keane's remains broke down.
The teen's torso was discovered 14 months later, on 11 March 2020, hidden in an overgrown ravine during a search of waste ground at Rathmullan Park in Drogheda, near where the teenager was murdered.
Bride had also, with another man, picked up Robbie Lawlor in Drogheda after the murder on 12 January 2020 and brought him back to Dublin.
Detective Sergeant Enda O'Sullivan said the murder was rooted in the ongoing feud between two organised crime groups in Drogheda and the 2019 murder of Richie Carberry who was married to Robbie Lawlor's sister.
Stephen Carberry, a father of six, has 77 previous convictions and is a convicted drug dealer who was on bail at the time of the offence.
Bride is a father of two with 86 previous convictions including for causing serious harm, attempted robbery, carrying a firearm, criminal damage, drug possession and theft.
Victim's mother 'haunted' by treatment of her son's body
In a victim impact statement, Keane's mother Elizabeth Mulready said the way her son was taken from her and what was done after his death has caused a level of trauma she would carry for the rest of her life.
"My child’s body was cut up, scattered and treated as if he was nothing and did not matter," she said. "The cruelty and inhumanity is something no parent should face. Knowing he was left in different places is a constant unbearable torment."
She said she was haunted all the time by images and the thoughts of what was done to Keane. She said she has lost her peace of mind, her sense of safety and her ability to live normally.
"Ordinary things are extremely difficult," she said, "life is now split, before and after Keane. Our family has been destroyed, his siblings lost their brother in the most brutal way imaginable.
"Family occasions, birthdays and holidays are no longer times of joy."
She also said that after Keane was killed "the choices made to further disrespect him and harm us were a deliberate act to deny us dignity closure and peace".
"Every discovery felt like losing my son all over again," she said.
"I will never stop grieving him. The pain at the way he suffered, I will carry for rest of my life. He deserved to be treated as a human being not something to be discarded."
Keane's father Barry Woods said that he was "living a nightmare" where "time stood still".
Ms Justice Karen O'Connor said today it was difficult to imagine a more egregious way to interfere with a murder investigation which caused immeasurable grief to Keane’s family.
"To lose a child is every parent’s nightmare but this family’s experience is beyond words and permanent," she said.
She described the inhumanity and disrespect as abhorrent.
She said the sentence had to be consecutive because Carberry was on bail at the time.
She sentenced him to six years' in prison to commence at the conclusion of the current sentence he is serving in 2028.
Ms Justice O'Connor said that while Bride has more convictions and more serious convictions including for violence, the court found his role was "not as significant" as that of Stephen Carberry.
Bride was sentenced to six years' in prison. The judge said the court had considered a consecutive sentence but decided his sentence commences today.
He's already serving another sentence which expires in April 2027.
Five people sentenced for roles in murder
The jailing of the two men today brings to five the number of people sentenced for their roles in the murder.
In February 2023, the Special Criminal Court jailed the 30-year-old Drogheda criminal Paul Crosby of Rathmullan Park, for ten years, for facilitating the "disgraceful and inhuman" murder of the teenager.
The DPP accepted that Crosby did not know Keane was to be murdered when he delivered him to Robbie Lawlor.
Crosby's co-accused, 51-year-old Gerard Cruise, with addresses in Drogheda and Lower Sherrard Street in Dublin, was considered by the court to be at a lower level and received a sentence of seven-and-a-half years with the final six months suspended for two years.
Gerard 'Ged' McKenna was sentenced to four years in prison for the offence of assisting an offender for his role in attempting to clean up the crime scene at his home in Rathmullan Park, following the murder and dismemberment of the child’s remains there.
