LAST UPDATE | 8 Mar 2022

A FATHER-OF-eight, who cleaned up and removed blood-stained evidence from his Drogheda home where teenager Keane Mulready Woods was murdered, has been jailed for four years. 

Sentencing Gerard ‘Ged’ McKenna at the Central Criminal Court today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said it was clear that there was nothing he could say or do in any way to alleviate “the terrible anguish” suffered by the family of Mulready Woods as a result of the “vicious and violent manner” of the murder and the “appalling disrespect” shown by the killers in the disposal of the victim’s body.  

The judge noted that it was not suggested that McKenna was present during the “shocking dismemberment of the boy” or that he had taken any preparatory steps or had any foreknowledge of what was going to be done to the victim.

He said the defendant became aware that something had occurred when he walked into the house and was instructed to clean the property.

“It was clear he knew what he was doing and what he was asked to do was terrible and wrong. The offence focused on what he did after and the deliberate disposal of important evidence,” he added.

He said the actions by McKenna of disposing of material evidence was a very serious offence and “a good deal” of the clean up in the house appeared to have been carried out by the perpetrators of the killing. “It is clear it was done in somewhat of a crude manner,” he added.

Justice McDermott said that whilst McKenna had expressed shame and knew the victim since his birth and his family, he did not appear to care at the time what was done to the teenager by these people in his family home but had also not expected him to be murdered and “in such a grotesque way”.

“If people are minded to cooperate and help more serious criminals because they feel intimidated or threatened to do so, they can thrive. Turning a blind eye and indifference to assisting serious criminal gangs is the essential bedrock of their success and this kind of assistance must be discouraged,” he added.

It was submitted by McKenna’s defence counsel during last week’s sentence hearing that the 52-year-old defendant had “no inkling” what would happen when he “surrendered” his Drogheda home to an organised criminal group.

Detective Sergeant Peter Cooney agreed with Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, that although McKenna knew “something bad” was going to happen when he allowed his house to be used, he did not know the specifics and had not been in the house at the time of the incident.

Evidence was given that a blood-stained ballistic vest belonging to the Drogheda teenager was discovered at a nearby burn site along with rubber gloves, a box of Swiss Army knives and part of a sofa.

The court also heard last week that a car parked in a laneway at the back of the accused’s house contained a blood-stained axe and a bone fragment. The keys to that car, a red Toyota Corolla, were also found in McKenna’s house.

Gardaí searched McKenna’s house at Rathmullen Park in Drogheda and observed ”a strong smell of paint” and “part of the floor” replaced. 

O’Higggins, for McKenna, told the sentencing hearing that the person who ordered McKenna to surrender his house was “a person of very significant notoriety, with a number of murders attributed to him, including that of a close friend”. This person, who has since passed away, “was not easy to say no to and when they tell you to do something you do it,” he submitted.

‘high degree of moral culpability’

McKenna of Rathmullen Park, Drogheda, Co Louth pleaded guilty last November to cleaning up and removing evidence from the scene at or near Rathmullan Park, Drogheda in Co Louth, with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of a person or persons, knowing or believing that the said person or persons were guilty of the murder of Mulready Woods (17), on a date unknown between 12 and 14 January 2020, both dates inclusive.

The offence is contrary to Section 7(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1997 and the maximum sentence is ten years in prison.  

Mulready Woods, from Drogheda, was last seen alive in the town on 12 January 2020.

The following day, some of the teenager’s dismembered body parts were found in a holdall in the Moatview area of Coolock in Dublin.

Two days later, his head, hands and feet were found in a burning car in the Drumcondra area of Dublin.

The court heard that McKenna has 14 previous convictions which include the sale of drugs, violent disorder, theft and burglary.

Before delivering the sentence today, Justice McDermott said the victim’s mother reported her son missing on 13 January and he was last seen the previous day.

McKenna’s house was searched on 14 January, he said, and the defendant was present at the time. It was clear to gardaí that there had been a recent attempt to paint the property and some furniture had been removed, he continued.

McKenna’s house, he said, was technically examined and there was extensive blood-staining including blood splatter on part of a ‘L’ shaped settee in the backyard.

When the blood was examined it was found to contain the DNA of Mulready Woods, continued the judge, adding that the deceased had been assaulted in the lounge area of the house.

The judge said gardaí concluded that there had been a clean-up of the home, where a new floor had been installed, although cast-off blood splatter remained on the ceilings.

When McKenna was asked about the objects in the fire, the judge said he told gardaí that he did not know that the child was wearing a ballistics vest. “He said that when he returned home the house was clean and he had to do it for his kids, to save them,” said the judge.

Having regard to the gravity of the offence, the judge said there was a high degree of moral culpability, which placed it in the upper mid-range of seriousness.

He said as far as the cleanup job was carried out by McKenna, it did not conceal blood on the ceiling or the floor and had been noticeable to gardaí when they entered the premises.

The judge also pointed out today that it was accepted that the accused had taken a call from a “very dangerous and menacing criminal” who had a reputation for violence in a number of murders and McKenna would not name him at the time. “It is also clear they threatened to kill his child,” he said.

The aggravating factors in the case included the horrific murder of the young boy and the cleaning up of the scene.

The judge set a headline sentence of seven years before mitigation.

In mitigation, the judge noted McKenna’s guilty plea, as well as his deep regret and continuing remorse for what happened, which the court accepted, was genuine.

McKenna was sentenced to five years and three months in prison with the final 15 months suspended for a period of three years. It was backdated to when he went into custody on 8 May 2020.