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Man convicted of murdering friend who was bludgeoned to death with a rock

Thomas O’Connor claimed he was acting in self-defence.

A MAN WHO claimed he was acting in self-defence when he bludgeoned his friend to death with a rock weighing 1.6 kilos has been convicted of murder.

Thomas O’Connor (29) of Burnaby Court, Greystones had been charged with murdering John O’Brien, who was from Burnaby Lawns in Greystones on June 4, 2010.

The father of one had pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to the 22-year-old’s manslaughter at Farrankelly Road, Delgany, Co Wicklow.

O’Connor had admitted hitting John O’Brien over the head with the boulder “two or three times” but said he only did so to protect himself after his friend attacked him.

A post-mortem later revealed John O’Brien died from “catastrophic injuries” as a result of blunt force trauma to the head

Today, a jury at the Central Criminal Court took just under four hours to find him guilty of murdering John O’Brien.

O’Connor now faces a mandatory life sentence.

During their deliberations, the jury of six men and six women asked to re-examine the murder weapon.

They returned less than half-an-hour later to say they had found the accused guilty of murder

Dressed casually in a grey windcheater and blue jeans. O’Connor kept his head bowed and did not react when the verdict was read out.

Trial judge Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan remanded the accused in custody for sentencing on 23 March and exempt the jury from service for 10 years.

Read: ‘Dangerous’ prisoner on the run after being released by mistake>

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    Mute Andrew Martin
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:01 AM

    “Alright, good night” would be fairly standard crew speak when being handed off from one ATC frequency to another. Yet again this is another fine example of media hype suggesting routine ATC/flight deck crew procedure to be something more sinister…

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:02 AM

    Spot on there Andrew regarding the media hype,A good few years ago there was a charter airline that had some tech issues inflight.
    They made an uneventful landing yet the red top brigade had published a story that the crew could not speak English,My mother asked me about this and if it was true as I worked in aviation,I said no as English is the official language in aviation no matter what country you flly to.

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    Mute Winston Teardrops
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    Mar 12th 2014, 12:15 PM

    Sure don’t you know – we have ‘great white’ sharks washing up on Irish shores now. Circulation and site hits will not be halted by mere truth or rationality.

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    Mute Cian Maher
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    Mar 12th 2014, 8:44 AM

    It’s an aeroplane not a set of car keys… How can it be lost?

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    Mute Genius
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    Mar 12th 2014, 7:47 AM

    Nothing unusual about that when changing controllers,The hypoxia theory may hold the answers but there would have been major alerts in the cockpit.

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    Mute Bill
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    Mar 12th 2014, 7:47 AM

    Greek charter airline Helios B737 crew suffered oxygen starvation and both rendered unconscious due to incorrect selection on cockpit overhead panel aircraft aircraft continued flight until it ran out of fuel and struck hill is it possible something similar occurred here,

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Mar 12th 2014, 11:16 AM

    The theory is not as the aircraft would have impacted at one spot, it would have also been visible decanting, if it impacted at one spot there would be a debris field. The absence of such indicates a high altitude catastrophic breakup, something not caused by oxygen starvation

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    Mute ipsum oleum
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:51 AM

    I heard that it landed At Knock following rumours of a 6th Garth Brooks concert to beheld in Swinford.

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 8:04 AM

    In 2003 a Boeing727 was ‘stolen’ on the tarmac in Angola. It has never been seen since. Intelligence experts believe it was taken to Mogadishu where it was going to be loaded with high explosive and used as a flying bomb. Rumors persist that a countries special forces located and destroyed the aircraft.
    Intelligence people are again looking at this scenario as a possible reason for the disappearance of the Malaysian aircraft.
    Whatever happened, its currently a mystery and tragedy for the families.

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    Mute James St John Smith
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    Mar 12th 2014, 8:45 AM

    There there. These men with the medication are going to look after you.

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:01 AM

    Try googling it dipshit.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:15 AM

    Patrick, are you suggesting that someone stole this plane from the sky? Please elaborate?

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    Mute Andrew Martin
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:20 AM

    May I elaborate on behalf of Patrick? The key word in Patrick’s post is ‘tarmac’. If you ever find tarmac in the sky seek medical attention immediately…

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:56 AM

    No emergency broadcast, no wreckage, no eyewitness of explosions or a plane falling from the sky. No wreckage. All electronic signals suddenly ceasing, radar not picking up anything. From my limited knowledge the only way this could happen is for the transponder to be manually turned off in the cockpit, also for all the other signals to disappear, again they would have to be turned off or jammed. As for radar, it is possible to fly below or above it. Unless the aircraft or debris is located soon, the viable explanation would be hijacking, there’s plenty of small islands in the Indian ocean, I believe one of the 777′s selling points is its ability to take off & land on a short runway. if hijacking is the case then you have to wonder what is the motivation, do they want the passengers for profit, or do they want the aircraft? unless you want to go with the alien theory.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:15 AM

    Patrick, “from my limited knowledge” that explains it for me.
    So somewhere out there is a small island with a small runway and “they” land this plane on it without anyone seeing it land because on this island there are no people even though someone built a runway on it????
    What are you smoking?

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:25 AM

    So what’s your explanation Declan?

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    Mute Ancient History
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:37 AM

    Pat
    Was listening to an aviation expert on the George Hook show. He was as mystified as anyone. He said the black box on those aircraft will release from the aircraft if it enters the water and begin transmitting. He mentioned that it didn’t happen on the air France flight that disappeared but thought it was unlikely the same malfunction could happen again.

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    Mute Matteen Beag
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:39 PM

    http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-09-26/html/2013-23456.htm

    My best guess, is the above Airworthiness Directive relating to the trip 7.

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    Mute Loop De Loop
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:41 PM

    Both black boxes will transmit a signal when immersed in water, but you still need to be pretty close to them to pick it up, especially if the boxes are in deep water.

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Mar 12th 2014, 3:42 PM

    That’s very interesting about cockpit crew being able to switch off the transponder, Pat. Does that mean, then, that the aircraft is undetectable if they also maintain radio silence? Maybe in the case of the black box lightning does strike twice. It’s horrible for the families and friends of those on board.

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:12 AM

    It is normal to ssy good night/good bye while changing ATC frequency,As for the aircraft loosing cabin pressure the flight crew would have put on their face mask, And decend to 10000 feet as per normal SOP also the flight crews oxygen supply is separate from the passengers air supply.
    With ACARS equipped on a aircraft it means that the airlines control center ops/maintenance people etc,Can contact the aircraft via a computer and the message prints off like a till receipt on the center control panel.

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    Mute John Thomas
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    Mar 12th 2014, 1:30 PM

    Am I the only one thinking aliens here? Surprised it hasn’t even been suggested in jest.

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    Mute TIPM (Mick Rooney)
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:20 PM

    Yes, you are the only one!

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    Mute Sean
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:20 AM
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    Mute TIPM (Mick Rooney)
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    Mar 12th 2014, 11:26 AM

    Be interesting to know if there is any maintanance record of a doubler plate being fitted in the area around the SATCOM box. It had a last service check in February. The Boeing alert from November was raised by a journalist this morning at the press conference and Malaysia Aviation simply replied that the airline got the alert from Boeing and maintainance procedures were followed. I’d be pretty sure NTSB is scouring those records now. Would explain a little – potential structural rupture leading to slow decompression – and the loss of comms and in-the-air transponder signal loss. But it still suggests you should have a signal from the black boxes once down in the water.

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    Mute Genius
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    Mar 12th 2014, 7:11 PM
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    Mute Ian Carty
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:39 AM

    Almost a week now and still no sign. They can find stars billions of miles away with technology and we have GPS and flight apps and they cant find it. Disgrace.

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Mar 12th 2014, 11:25 AM

    Hardly a valid comparison between celestial objects that have been visible for millennia or are detectable by their extremely large size and gravitational effect and a Boeing 777. If they start using a celestial telescope to search for the aircraft they are in big trouble

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    Mute emily denner
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:57 PM

    They can track an iphone. They can track a shark. They can even track keys but they cant track a plane with 239 people on it. The government is keeping alot of information private. Maybe too much. People are commenting here arguments when people are overseas crying at airports waiting for loved ones. Disrespect.

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    Mute Edward Cullen
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:40 PM

    The plane had 7.5 hours of fuel on board when it went missing. What I think happened was that it was hijacked and flown into Russia or some island and the passengers were either shot or told not to say anything. Like a big plane just does not go missing.

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