A man from Westmeath will be handed the mandatory life sentence later this morning for murdering the mother of his two children. Danny Keena from Empor in Ballynacargy choked Brigid Maguire to death during an argument at her home in 2015.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on day one of his trial but it wasn’t accepted by the DPP and he was tried and eventually convicted for murder.
His children gave harrowing evidence of domestic abuse in the family home before their mother Brigid Maguire took them away and moved them into rented accommodation on Main Street in Ballynacargy. That was September 2015. Keena called into their new home five weeks later. She was on her own and they argued about their son’s attendance at school. He claimed he just lost it when she called him a bad father. He said he put his two hands on her neck and strangled her, but in his defence, he said he was provoked and couldn’t stop himself.
The jury didn’t believe him and convicted him of murder on Monday. His sentence hearing was adjourned until today to allow time for victim impact statements to be prepared.
