A man charged in relation to the death of a 72 year old North Cork woman whose body was found in a burning car in a forest near Doneraile earlier this year is to be tried at the Central Criminal Court on a single charge of murder, the DPP has directed.
ichael Leonard (63) from Glenosheen, Kilmallock, Co Limerick was making his ninth court appearance when he appeared at Cork District Court by video link this Wednesday charged with the murder of Mary O’Keeffe (nee McAuliffe) at Dromdeer East, Doneraile, on February 4, 2021.
Sgt John Kelleher told the vacation sitting of Cork District Court that the DPP had directed that Mr Leonard be sent forward to the Central Criminal Court for trial on indictment on the single charge of murdering Ms O’Keeffe and he sought an adjournment until September 10.
Defence solicitor Brendan Gill said that an adjournment until September 10 was acceptable to his client and Judge Colm Roberts remanded Mr Leonard in continuing custody to appear again at Cork District Court by video link on that date.
Earlier this summer, the coroner for North Cork, Dr Michael Kennedy, opened the inquest into the death of Ms O’Keeffe, whose body was found by firefighters when they were called to deal with a car on fire beside a communications mast in a clearing in the forest at Dromdeer in Doneraile.
A widow, the late Ms O’Keeffe was originally from Lombardstown but lived in Dromahane near Mallow and worked as a cook with the Mallow Sheltered Care project at Summerhill in the town. She was survived by her three sons, Ger and twins Christie and Donal.
The inquest at Mallow Courthouse heard evidence from Det Sgt James O’Shea of Fermoy Garda Station that Mallow Fire Service were called to the car fire in the woods at Dromdeer on February 4th and when they extinguished the fire they discovered a body in the car
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster visited the preserved scene and Ms O’Keeffe’s body was then removed to the Cork City Mortuary for the post-mortem where her remains had to be identified using DNA because visual identification was not possible due to the burns.
Dr Bolster told the inquest how she conducted the post-mortem at the Cork City Morgue and found that Ms O’Keeffe died from extensive severe third degree burns associated with the inhalation of carbon dioxide due a fire in car.
Insp Paul Ahern related how a person had been charged with Ms O’Keeffe’s murder and was currently before the courts, and he applied to have the inquest adjourned pending criminal proceedings and Dr Kennedy granted the application.