A jury has found Wayne Roche guilty of murdering John O’Connor at his home in New Ross on New Year’s Eve 2024.
Roche (35), formerly of Dominic’s Place, Waterford City, was found guilty by a unanimous verdict at the Central Criminal Court in Waterford. He had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.
The trial before Mr Justice Patrick McGrath opened on 24 April 2026 and lasted three weeks. The jury of four men and eight women deliberated for three hours and 10 minutes before returning their verdict.
Roche will receive the mandatory life sentence at a sentencing hearing in Dublin Criminal Court on 15 June 2026. Victim impact statements are to be prepared.
The murder occurred between 30 and 31 December 2024 at 17 Cluain Fada in New Ross, County Wexford. O’Connor’s body was discovered by his daughter Chloe on the morning of 31 December. She found him covered in blood on the floor of his first-floor flat and called emergency services.
Roche was in a relationship with O’Connor’s daughter at the time, and the couple had recently learned they were expecting a child.
Roche was charged with murder on 2 January 2025 after appearing before a special sitting of Wexford District Court. When charged, he replied: “I didn’t murder anyone.”
An initial jury was discharged on 21 April 2026 after it emerged that one juror had identified a close relative of a person closely connected to the case. The trial restarted with a new panel.
The court heard from more than 60 witnesses, including members of the more than 100-strong garda investigation team led out of New Ross garda station.
A post-mortem examination by State Pathologist Dr Yvonne McCartney on 1 January 2025 found more than 100 injuries on O’Connor’s body. The cause of death was haemorrhagic shock of the abdominal sac, with liver cirrhosis as a contributory factor.
A third man, Michael Bancewicz, who had been staying at O’Connor’s flat, was drinking with the two men on the night of 30 December. He told the court that Roche began acting aggressively, returned from the kitchen with a knife and stabbed himself in the leg before spreading blood on his face “like in Braveheart.”
Prosecutor Dean Kelly SC told the court that O’Connor, who was 5’7 and just over 10 stone, was “smaller than him and weaker than him.” Kelly described Roche’s account as “self-serving nonsense” and a “tissue of lies,” and referred to him as a “catatonic killer.”
Defence counsel John Byrne SC argued there were “gaps” in the evidence, noting that “there were only two men in that room” and “there is no evidence whatsoever about the circumstances into how John O’Connor sustained those injuries.”
On the night of the murder, Roche had consumed heroin, crack cocaine, benzodiazepines, and alcohol. He claimed to have no recollection of the evening after saying goodbye to his partner Chloe outside Corcoran’s off-licence.
After the murder, Roche was arrested at New Ross bus station and taken to University Hospital Waterford, where he was in a distressed and agitated state. He shouted abuse and attempted to cut his neck with broken glass hidden in his underpants.
He made threats of violence and rape against family members of gardaí, shouted racist abuse at security staff, and homophobic abuse at doctors. He initially refused medical treatment and pulled out sutures from a self-inflicted wound, requiring metal staples to be used instead.
He asked an armed Detective Garda to shoot him, saying he “didn’t want to hurt anyone else.”
In garda interviews, Roche claimed he did not know what had happened to O’Connor and panicked when he found him on the floor. He said he “just knew the guards would pin it on me” and made a “stupid split-second decision” to leave, but said he had tried to get help. In a voice note sent to his mother on the night of 30 December, Roche described O’Connor as a “lovely man” and said the pair were “catching up.”
McGrath thanked the jury for their “very onerous public service” and excused them from jury duty for 10 years.
Members of O’Connor’s family applauded as Roche was led from the dock. Speaking outside Waterford Courthouse, the victim’s sister Deirdre said the family was “very happy” with the outcome and that “justice was served for the murder of John O’Connor.”