Teens charged with electrician's murder
Saturday September 30 2006
Mr Coughlan (18) of Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, died after he was assaulted on the city's outskirts last November.
At Limerick District Court yesterday, Shane Kelly of Oliver Plunkett Street, St Mary's Park, and Richard Treacy of St Munchin's Street, St Mary's Park, were charged with committing the murder on November 4 last year. Custody
Both are 18 years old and were arrested in the St Mary's Park area of the city at around 10.30am yesterday. Neither of them made any reply when charged.
Mr Treacy, who wore a charcoal Nike hoodie during the brief hearing, is a younger brother of Owen Treacy, the State's key witness in the murder trial of Kieran Keane.
Owen Treacy sat in the corner of the courtroom yesterday.
Solicitor for Mr Treacy, Pat Barriscale, asked the judge, Tom O'Donnell, whether his client could be remanded to Limerick Prison for his own safety.
John Devane, solicitor for Mr Kelly, requested that his client be remanded to Limerick Prison as his mother, Eileen Kelly, would find it hard to travel outside of Limerick.
Judge O'Donnell reminded both solicitors that any bail application would have to be made to the High Court as the charge was murder. The judge remanded both defendants in custody. They will appear before Limerick District Court again on November 5.
Mr Coughlan, an apprentice electrician, was on a life-support machine but never regained consciousness after the assault. At the family‘s request, his vital organs were donated for transplant.
- Barry Duggan
