Ruth Lawrence given two life sentences for murders of two men found on lake island

Alison O’Riordan

Double murderer Ruth Lawrence has on Monday been given two separate life sentences for shooting a drug dealer and working in tandem with her boyfriend to murder him and another man, with the victim's bodies later found bound and buried in a shallow grave on a lake island in the midlands over a decade ago.

In her victim impact statement, Karen Roche told the Central Criminal Court that her partner Eoin O'Connor had died after seeing his best friend shot dead in front of him.

"I think of the panic he must have felt when he knew he was going to be next. I know he struggled and fought and tried his best to live but they wouldn't let him," she said.

Margaret Keegan, sister of Anthony Keegan, sat through the entire trial and on Monday delivered a second statement on behalf of herself and her family. Ms Keegan said they could not make sense of "the detailed planning that went into the murder".

She added: "We wondered was he shot first, did he die instantly, did he feel fear. We could not make sense of the efforts that were put into the disposal of his body, why his shoes and socks were taken off, why coal bags were used, why wasn't it enough to have ended his life but to have us searching for his body for weeks".

"I heard in evidence that Ruth laughed about my loyal brother dying for his friend. To think that someone would find that funny is so beyond belief.

"As a woman and a mother, to think that another woman would laugh at the violent death of someone's loved one makes us sick to our stomach.

"I wonder does she still find it funny. I wonder is she laughing now as she hears the impact of what she did to my family".

The testimonies were heard as part of four emotional victim impact statements before Lawrence was sentenced to two mandatory terms of life imprisonment for murdering the two men. The sentences were backdated to October 4th 2022, when she went into custody.

On November 12th last, a Central Criminal Court jury found that 46-year-old Lawrence shot and worked "as a unit" with her boyfriend, South African national Neville van der Westhuizen, to murder drug dealer Eoin O'Connor (32), after they had lured him to their home.

The panel also accepted that Anthony Keegan (33) was shot by van der Westhuizen and found that he and Lawrence also acted as a team in that murder and were equally liable for the outcome.

Lawrence, who is originally from Clontarf in Dublin but with an address at Patricks Cottage, Ross, Mountnugent in Co Meath, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Keegan and Mr O'Connor at an unknown location within the State on a date between April 22nd, 2014 and May 26th, 2014, both dates inclusive.

Handing down the concurrent life sentences for murder, Mr Justice Tony Hunt noted that the families had today given a very articulate picture of the trauma caused to a large number of people over a long period of time.

Extending his condolences to the O'Connor and Keegan families, Mr Justice Hunt said "entirely needless activities or whatever went on" in no way deserved the violent end the men met, nor "the entirely callous and disrespectful way" their bodies were treated.

The trial heard that Mr O'Connor sold drugs to van der Westhuizen, who owed the deceased man in the region of €70,000.

Lawrence, who did not give evidence in the trial and was never interviewed by gardaí, fled to South Africa in the aftermath of the murders and was extradited back to Ireland in May 2023.

The trial heard that while in the Rainbow Nation, she feared she would become a victim of human trafficking and had stayed in women's refuges.

Van der Westhuizen is currently serving a 15-year sentence in Durban, for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping in a separate case.

An application to return him to Ireland to face trial will take place when he has finished serving his sentence in South Africa.

Michael O'Higgins SC with Jane Horgan-Jones BL, prosecuting, said in his closing address last month that Lawrence and her boyfriend had acted as "a unit and a tag team" to "lure" Mr O'Connor to their home to murder him in a "highly calculated" crime.

The State contended that van der Westhuizen also shot Mr Keegan while "acting as a team" with Lawrence, making both guilty of murder.