On Friday 9 October 2009, six people were drinking at a house in Ard na Dara, a housing estate in the Clonard area of Wexford Town. The group included 30-year-old Rebecca French, a mother of two, and four men who would later be convicted in connection with her death.
According to evidence given by Helen Connors during a subsequent trial, one of the men, Ricardus Dilys, repeatedly punched French in the face following a heated argument.
After the assault, French threatened to report him to the Gardaí. In response, Dilys, whom Connors described as “mad and paranoid,” called the other three men into the kitchen. Connors said the four men talked amongst themselves and she could hear one of them saying “Gloves, gloves, gloves.”
When they returned to the sitting room, the men began assaulting French. As one of them locked the front door, Dilys kicked her in the face, knocking her to the floor.
Connors told the court that Patrick O’Connor sprayed gas in her face before Dilys began repeatedly striking her with a golf club. The men continued the assault as she lay on the floor, kicking her and hitting her with the golf club.
During the assault, O’Connor instructed Connors to burn the rubber gloves they had been wearing.
Connors, who said she had feared for her life, told Gardaí that she delivered “two poxy little kicks” to French’s chest. “God forgive me. I didn’t want to do it. I was told to kick her. They held me while I kicked her. I thought I’d be killed if I didn’t.” She also admitted to swinging the golf club, saying one of the men handed it to her and instructed her to strike French, but she missed and hit Piotr Pasiak instead.
After the assault ended, one of the men checked for French’s pulse and could not find one. Connors said she realised at that point that French was dead. O’Connor then told the others that he knew where they could dump the body.
Connors attempted to clean the scene while the four men disposed of her body.
The attackers placed French in the boot of her own blue Opel Corsa. They tied a plastic bag around her head and bound her wrists with a plastic cable tie. The men drove to Codd’s Lane, a small back road on the outskirts of Wexford Town, and set the car on fire.
Just after 4pm, passers-by in Codd’s Lane came across the burning car. By the time emergency services reached the area, the fire had intensified. Only after extinguishing the blaze did they discover French’s body.
Roughly one hour later, Gardaí arrived at the house in Ard na Dara. Inside, they discovered five people: four men and a woman. Two of them, Lithuanian nationals Ruslanas Minekas and Ricardus Dilys, had no trousers or shoes on.
While examining the house, Gardaí discovered remnants of cable ties, rubber gloves, and pieces of women’s jewellery in the ashes of the fireplace. They also noted that someone had removed the cover of one seat and placed it in the washing machine.
Examination of the legs of some stools revealed speckles of French’s blood. Gardaí also seized golf clubs from the house and found her DNA on them.
A post-mortem examination found three fractures on the back of French’s skull and five broken ribs on the right side of her body. The absence of smoke in her lungs indicated that she had died before the attackers set the car alight.
State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy concluded that French died from blunt force trauma to the head and that her attackers had used the plastic bag to contain blood from her head injuries.
Patrick O’Connor and Piotr Pasiak pleaded guilty to impeding the prosecution before the murder trial began in October 2010.
Prosecutors had charged Minekas and Dilys with French’s murder, but the case collapsed because of a legal error. When Gardaí arrested the two men, they were intoxicated, and authorities called a doctor to certify whether they were fit for questioning. The doctor specified that they were intoxicated and that questioning could resume in the morning, writing ‘AM’ on the form.
However, because the doctor wrote ‘AM’ instead of an exact time, the note did not satisfy the precise requirements of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009.
The courts deemed the men’s detention past 11.45pm unconstitutional. As a result, the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi, meaning they were unwilling to pursue the case.
Dilys and Minekas later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of impeding the prosecution.
Mr Justice Barry White sentenced all four together in December 2010. He gave each ten years in prison, suspending the final two years for Dilys, Minekas, and O’Connor.
Pasiak, who had no previous convictions, received a suspension of the final two and a half years.
The suspended sentences for the three non-Irish defendants were conditional on them leaving Ireland upon release.
Justice White stated that the maximum sentence was “not half long enough” and that the defendants had shown little remorse.
Prosecutors had also charged Helen Connors with impeding the prosecution, but the court acquitted her in June 2012.
In 2015, an inquest into French’s death concluded with a verdict of unlawful killing at the request of County Coroner Dr Sean Nixon. Afterwards, Dr Nixon extended his sympathy to the French family on their “very, very sad and very, very tragic loss.”
Other criminal cases:
– The disappearance of Fiona Sinnott.
– The murder of Garda Seamus Quaid.