A West Clare man serving a life sentence for the murder of his neighbour has been refused permission to bring a challenge against his conviction to the Supreme Court.
Brendan O’Sullivan admitted the shooting of Leslie Kenny in July 2009, but said it was only to protect his family from threats and not to kill him.
He claimed Leslie Kenny, who had 82 previous convictions, had made threats to slit the throats of his daughters, shoot down his back door, and put petrol in his letterbox.
However, the now 29-year-old O’Sullivan was convicted for murder and jailed for life in 2010, and lost an appeal against this conviction earlier this year.
This centred on claims that the judge had inadequately charged the jury as to when a manslaughter verdict should be returned, and today the case was back before the Court of Criminal, where O’Sullivan had sought a further appeal to the Supreme Court, with his lawyers saying this was a point of law of exceptional public importance.
However, the Court of Criminal Appeal has refused to allow a further appeal.
It has found that the jury, having considered all the evidence, simply did not accept Brendan O’Sullivan was acting in self defence at all.
