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POLICE IN THE North have today welcomed the life sentence handed down to David Lyness for the murder of his fianceé.
Lyness was found guilty recently of the murder of 51 year old Anita Downey at his Toberhewny Hall home in Lurgan on 20 January last year.
At a sentencing hearing at Belfast Crown Court earlier today, Lyness was told he will serve a minimum of 18 years in jail, before being considered for release.
Detective Inspector David McGrory said he welcomed the sentence considering the brutality of the crime.
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He said: “Anita Downey, a loving mother of three, endured a terrifying death at the hands of Lyness. He brutally beat her during a sustained attack that culminated in him getting a kitchen knife and deliberately and savagely cutting her throat, ultimately causing her death.
“Lyness’ callousness and cruelty continued beyond the savage murder as he repeatedly denied his guilt despite the overwhelming and compelling evidence against him, putting the Downey family through the trauma of a three week trial, together with forcing his own son to take the stand to give evidence.”
The trial judge Geoffrey Miller QC paid tribute to the dignity displayed by the Downey family, something which was echoed by the PSNI.
McGrory added: “I would pay particular tribute to David Lyness’ son for his bravery and unwavering commitment to seeing justice done for Anita.
“Whilst nothing can ever make up for their devastating loss, we hope that the lengthy sentence given to David Lyness offers some measure of comfort and closure to the Downey family.”
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What’s has this scandal to do with Gardai? The government puts forward the Juvenile Diversion Program producing more work, then it reduces the number of Gardai, and when the program fails for certain people the workload is increased further…
I hope the MSM in this country don’t follow the MSM in the US and start driving an anti-Garda narrative…I wouldn’t be surprised though with some of the clowns who call themselves journalists these days….
@Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown: You have hit the nail firmly on the head. Many Gardai regard dealing with juvenile criminals as a waste of time because they are treated as children.The staff in the so called juvenile detention centres don’t wear uniforms for fear of upsetting the
little dears.
@Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown: My understanding was that when the JLS was set up the arresting Garda referred the offender to the JLS and if he/she failed to engage they were referred back to the Garda for further action. At some point Garda management changed this so instead of referring back, the offenders details were put on a general list. This is what appears to have caused this problem and as per usual no one is responsible.
What actually happened is it was out of sight out of mind and the paperwork looked better from managements perspective …… then the chickens came home to roost ….. so this scandal is down to Garda management.
@Passing through this life: Simple fact of life: If you are adding more work onto Gardai, while at the same time reducing the amount of Gardai to do the work, you should expect to run into issues with the work.
The only way you could avoid this is if you are investing in systems that increase productivity. Unfortunately, in Ireland, there has also being a severe lack of proper investment in systems. We don’t have enough Gardai or proper investment in Garda systems in this country.
The issues with numbers of Gardai and investment falls squarely on our government…
It’s no wonder there are so many little scrotes running around causing mayhem seeing as they know they won’t get prosecuted. This JDP also seems like a bit of a mess as well. They get a caution and that’s it? It should be first caution and 16 hours community service, 2nd and 32 hours, third strike it’s court. Why should law abiding citizens give up their spare time cleaning up their towns and villages when we could have 13,000 of these little shites doing it. Not only would we have a cleaner countryside, it would also shame and shite out of them and their parents.
I know that some of them and their parents couldn’t give a monkeys but if I had to clean up my local village while wearing a JLP hi-viz vest my parents would be mortified. You could also be sure that I wouldn’t let out the door again until I hit 18, if I was lucky.
@Jumanji: under resourced..robbing Peter to pay Paul and creating the next problem..management pandering to politicians and not giving it to them (and the public) straight
How far back does this backlog go, are we talking a year, 2, 3…10? The Juvenile Liaison Scheme wasn’t just used in the Dublin area but all over the country, so are we to expect similar figures from other parts of the country as audits are carried out nationwide. They will be carried out Nationwide given what’s been revealed in Dublin alone, won’t they?
The JLA scheme has had a reputation for being soft on young offenders, in some cases it almost gave the appearance that young joyriders etc. would be “bribed” with excursions and even short holidays. They were supposed to leave their criminal ways behind them as this gave them a glimpse into what they could achieve if they applied themselves. The problem was twofold.
Ordinary decent kids who never put a foot wrong saw gurriers, who continued doing whatever they pleased, get everything while decent kids couldn’t get a football from the government. You can imagine how they felt, and unfortunately sometimes reacted.
The gurriers were on their way to being hardened criminals, even in their teens, by giving them a system like that, it was manna from heaven to them. The Juvenile Liaison Scheme facilitated them to become even worse, if they didn’t co-operate they were supposed to be prosecuted or their crimes, but that wasn’t happening, instead they were being rewarded.
We often wonder why we have such a crime problem, why we have such a problem with anti-social behaviour. Maybe it’s because ‘we’ in part, created some of it. Some of the criminals had to start somewhere, how many began on a The Juvenile Liaison Scheme, and how many re supposed to be on one now?
And if you caught one of these little curs and gave him a clip around the ear, you my friend would be up before the beek facing a serious charge. Hows that for ya.
@Patabake Kennedy: A friend of mine was a cop in another jurisdiction and back in they day they would give a young offender a kick in the hole and a couple of belts before they brought him home to their parents. Now the parents will have you up on report if you touched a hair on their little darlings head.
Children in Need — Draft.
How did we get here and what can be done to save our present and next generations?
Start at the basics: Start at the very beginning; it’s a very good place to start.
In order to tackle societal and inherited problems that wreck families and communities, it is necessary to start with the rights and necessities of children. This starts at the beginning, when every child is born.
Children need good parents/carers as role models and advisors and a permanent roof over their heads, not a hotel, B&B, hostel or hub.
Nutrition, good health, education, integration and fun are paramount for children and adults…
-Every school should have Physical Education as a requirement, everyday, including children with disabilities and children from other countries
Every community should have a youth club or equivalent that is well supervised (including voluntary parental supervision)
-Encourage children to participate in sports, community games, GAA, swimming, cycling, social interrogation, playing outdoors and voluntary work
-Every child deserves proper nutrition. School cafeterias help but parents should care enough to feed their children properly
Every town, city and village should be equipped with ample playgrounds, parks, games fields for football, athletics, tennis, badminton, and cricket. (Every activity)
Counselling should be paramount in every primary and secondary school and college
- Summer activities are very important for children, whether they live in a town, village, city or the vast country side. Children deserve access to beaches, fun parks and historical venues. The State, Communities with parent/carer assistance should facilitate day and weekend trips.
Boys and Girls Scouts membership and participation is great for children and teenagers.
Invest in childhood.
Teenagers are at great risk and should be allowed to work legitemaly during holiday periods. It will give them a sense of responsibility and independence along with control over their earnings and will teach communication, team participation and life skills
And where are the parents to prevent this ‘back log’ happening in the first place. Underfunded, understaffed and do not have parental responsibility for thugs.
For some reason this reads like a Garda scandal ,it is not.
This is about staffing and a system that probably never worked. Prob the New man will be allowed open the wallet , simple as, but that budget jump won’t be covered.
This is in legislation and though we are eager to fulfill our legal requirements in other fields and allow funding this is not the case here. Perhaps journalists(more aptly described now as reporters or printers) ,can go show us the line budget that ever addressed this after the government passed that legislation.
Because the plan was Absorb from current staff and fund from current budget, role on with ministers radio appearance and glossy brochure. Truly fake news.
Always the same with these types, a new initiative funded from current funding and staffing. Perhaps they should be teaching the staff magic instead.
Finally, How can you reform the system if the court system that deal with a guy on a repeat 90 convictions + still no problems, here sure have another go laddy attitude and the media are a disgrace.
They need to double the workforce in the police. They also need to employ people from Dublin to work in Dublin stations and employ rural personnel for rural stations.
How many Muslims are there in the police force here? As there are more Muslims than Protestants in Ireland they should be represented in our public service and civil service.
Cory Freidman was an adorable little boy, a joyful arrival to the Friedman household; he had a fun filled life with adoring parents and a big sister. Life was good until one day in 1989, Cory felt peculiar. Out of the blue, he had uncontrollable urges to shake his head continually. It wasn’t long before his entire body was moving in all directions, twisting and gyrating, out control. Cory had not reached his fifth birthday.
He was diagnosed with a rare combination of Tourette syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorders and other neurological conditions.
This book follows his struggle and that of his family over the next fifteen years.
Over this period, Cory visited no less than thirteen doctors and was prescribed up to sixty different kinds of prescriptive drugs, some of(which had serious side effects. He was also prescribed Resperdal, an antipsychotic drug used to treat Schizophrenia, which Cory did not have.
As Cory got older, he used recreational drugs along with his prescribed medicine. He got in with the wrong crowd and his behaviour and self destruction became unbearable for his family to handle. One of the final straws was when he set the basement in the family home on fire.
(Key Point)
HIS FAMILY DECIDED TO SEND HIM TO A WILDERNESS SURVIVAL CAMP IN UTAH DURING WINTER TIME. The participants slept outside and that is just the beginning, It was hard for Cory from the start and the fact that that he should have to comply with the team interactions and rules required. On his first day, he let down his fellow participants and that not go down very well.
For the end, you will just have to read the book. It’s worth a read.
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