A 46-year-old woman has been jailed for life for the murders of two men who were shot dead and whose bodies were found on an island in a midlands lake 11 years ago.
Ruth Lawrence, who is originally from Clontarf in Dublin, but with an address at Patricks Cottage, Ross, Mount Nugent in Co Meath, had denied murdering 33-year-old Anthony Keegan and 32-year-old Eoin O’Connor between 22 April and 26 May 2014.
Members of the victims’ families spoke in court today of the “torment” and loss they feel at their loved ones “horrific” murders.
Mr O’Connor’s wife, Karen Roche, said that to hear that Lawrence “laughed” and “to murder them both wasn’t enough.”
“To hear they wanted to tie concrete to them and dump in a lake is one of the most inhumane things I’ve ever heard,” she said.
‘No sentence will ever be enough’
His daughter, Brook Roche, who was aged ten at the time her father was murdered, said she never truly understood “what was wrong with me until a teen, I was just a scared child.”
“Selling drugs is no reason to die in the way my father did,” she said. “He did it to provide for the family, roof over our head and food on the table he would have done anything to keep us happy.”
“The way he died is no reflection on my dad,” she told the court.
She also described Lawrence as “an evil person” who “ruined our lives forever”.
“No sentence will ever be enough,” Brook Roche said, “but hopefully guilt and shame will be a lifetime sentence for her”.
She described her as “cold and callous”.
“She laughed about my loyal brother,” she said, “to think that another woman would laugh. I wonder does she still find it funny, now that she has heard the impact it has had on my family.”
She also said that her email address was RuthofallEvil and that she had changed her name to Lawless.
“What a name choice,” Ms Keegan said.
She also thanked gardaà and the prosecution team for securing “justice” for their family.
“We are so grateful they valued our brothers’ life,” she said
“If Ruth was left to her plans, our loved ones would be at the bottom of that lake,” Ms Keegan said.
Bodies discovered on island in Lough Sheelin
The bodies of the two men were discovered on Inchicup Island on Lough Sheelin, which straddles the borders of counties Meath, Westmeath and Cavan, five weeks after they went missing.
Mr O’Connor was a drug dealer in Dublin who had drugs stolen from him six days before his murder.
The court heard that Lawrence and her South African boyfriend Neville van der Westhuizen were involved in that planning of that theft and the cocaine stolen was brought back to their home in Cavan.
Mr O’Connor had also sold drugs to Neville van der Westhuizen, who owed him €70,000.
The theft of his drugs and the drug debt put Mr O’Connor under pressure, and he and his childhood friend, Anthony Keegan went to Cavan to meet the couple.
Lawrence shot Eoin O’Connor in the stomach, but the shot was not fatal and was quickly followed up by a shot to the head by her boyfriend.
Prosecuting counsel Michael O’Higgins said that Lawrence shot Mr O’Connor in the stomach intending to kill him and that Mr O’Connor may have “grappled” with her boyfriend before he “finished him off”.
Mr Keegan, who arrived with Mr O’Connor, was shot in the neck and head.
Both men were shot in a field near Patrick’s Cottage, and their bodies were moved to the island later that night.
The last call between Mr O’Connor and Neville van der Westhuizen was around 7.10pm on 22 April 2014 and indicated there must have been a specific meeting point mentioned in that call.
The court was told the couple acted as “a unit and a tag team” to lure the drug dealer to their home and murder him in a “highly calculated crime”, and that whether they were aware that Anthony Keegan was to be with him, a plan was fine-tuned, and he was murdered too.
Stacey Symes, a witness in the case, testified that that Lawrence had shot Mr O’Connor “but it went wrong” so her boyfriend “took over”.
She said she remembered that Lawrence thought it was funny that “the other fella” [Anthony Keegan] said he would die for Mr O’Connor because “they were friends”.
She also testified that she and her father Jason, who were described in court as “low level drug dealers”, were asked to help move the bodies of the two murdered men.
Jason Symes told the jury that he was “terrified” of Lawrence, who he said carried around “a little black gun” and would put it down the back of her trousers.
Both Jason and Stacey Symes are in the Witness Security Programme.
The bodies of the two men were wrapped in tarpaulin and moved to the island, where there remains were discovered a month later in an advanced state of decomposition.
Lawrence and Neville van der Westhuizen left Ireland after the murders and went to South Africa.
She was extradited and charged with the murders in May 2023. She has no previous convictions.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Van der Westhuizen who is serving a 15-year sentence in South Africa, having been convicted in 2020 on six counts of kidnapping, attempted murder and murder.
The court heard the application to extradite him to Ireland is adjourned until his sentence in South Africa is complete, which might be in 2035, and if he is given parole before that, the extradition case may become live again.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said this morning that while the process must have been very difficult and painful for the families, it is important to have transparency, and they now have the outcome and vindication they desired.
He thanked the family members for their courage in delivering the victim impact statements and extended his sympathies to them on their losses and their prolonged grief.
“Whatever may have went on here in no way justified the violent deaths these men endured and the callous and disrespectful way their bodies were treated,” he said.
He thanked gardaà and the emergency services and paid particular tribute to the witnesses and citizens who gave evidence.
He directed Lawrence to stand and sentenced her to a life sentence for the murder of each man to run concurrently.