Ruth Lawrence found guilty of murder of two men in 2014Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\nO\u2019Connor was a drug dealer, Lawrence\u2019s murder trial was told. Roche, his partner, said in the week leading up to his disappearance the 32-year-old wasn\u2019t himself; he had been very quiet and had not appeared in the right frame of mind.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor had been in Ballyjamesduff the previous day, Easter Monday. He told Roche on the way home he found \u201cthe fellas\u201d he was looking for.<\/p>\n
When Roche and O\u2019Connor were in the city centre on the day he disappeared, he had taken a phone call at about 3.50pm. She said he didn\u2019t seem happy about it. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor told his partner he would have to return to Cavan that evening.<\/p>\n
\u2018My brother never spelled the word like that\u2019<\/p>\n
Rory O\u2019Connor was at a football match in Coolock when he last spoke to Eoin O\u2019Connor, his younger brother, at about 7.30pm that night. Rory O\u2019Connor was immediately worried when he found out where his brother was. He knew Eoin O\u2019Connor was owed money by two men living in Ballyjamesduff, he told the court.<\/p>\n
The two men were a small-time drug dealer named Jason Symes and a bigger player in the drugs trade, Neville van der Westhuizen, a South African man.<\/p>\n
Rory O\u2019Connor rang his brother\u2019s phone at about 8.45pm but got no answer. He found it unusual that Eoin O\u2019Connor hadn\u2019t replied to his text messages, as his younger brother would always keep in contact with him.<\/p>\n
Another brother, Brian O\u2019Connor, texted Eoin O\u2019Connor between 8.30pm and 9pm and Eoin replied that he was waiting on \u201csomebody to turn up\u201d.<\/p>\n
When Brian O\u2019Connor texted Eoin O\u2019Connor at 9.45pm to say he was getting worried and asked if he was okay, he received a one-word response: \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Eoin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4AHCX246PCXFW6JNYYBT7NBZWA.jpg\")
Eoin O\u2019Connor (32) and Anthony Keegan (33) <\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother never spelled the word like that, he normally spelled it \u2018yea\u2019,\u201d Brian O\u2019Connor told the jury.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Eoin O\u2019Connor\u2019s phone just rang out after this point.<\/p>\n
Rory O\u2019Connor was so concerned that he drove his van at 2am to the house of Jason Symes, a low-level drug dealer Eoin O\u2019Connor had been selling cannabis to, in the Woodlands estate in Ballyjamesduff in search of his brother.<\/p>\n
When he received no answer, Rory O\u2019Connor drove past the local Garda station in Bailieborough to see if the car Eoin O\u2019Connor had been driving \u2013 his mother\u2019s 2004 silver Ford Focus \u2013 was parked outside. It was nowhere to be seen. <\/p>\n
Rory O\u2019Connor understood that Symes and van der Westhuizen owed Eoin O\u2019Connor \u201ca substantive debt\u201d.<\/p>\n
The South African man, in fact, owed Eoin O\u2019Connor about \u20ac70,000 and an immediate payment of \u20ac15,000 was to be forthcoming.<\/p>\n
Eoin O\u2019Connor had told his brother Brian O\u2019Connor he met Symes the previous day and \u201ceverything was sorted\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEoin said he was told by Jay Symes to call back the following day and he would have half or some of the money,\u201d Brian O\u2019Connor told the jury.<\/p>\n
Concerned about the whereabouts of their sibling, the O\u2019Connor brothers returned to Symes\u2019s home on the evening of April 23rd but there was no answer. <\/p>\n
Rory O\u2019Connor made an official missing-person report about his brother at Santry Garda station in Dublin at 9.45pm the following night.<\/p>\n
\u2018Always a bit mad\u2019<\/p>\n
Anthony Keegan, who was also known as \u201cBod\u201d, had grown up with Eoin O\u2019Connor in Coolock on the northside of Dublin. He had travelled with O\u2019Connor to Cavan that night and was there \u201cin a supporting role\u201d in case of trouble.<\/p>\n
Margaret Keegan last spoke to her adopted brother Anthony Keegan just after 6pm on April 22nd. She described him as \u201calways a bit mad\u201d and told the court he had been \u201cin and out for doing sentences\u201d, as the adoption had affected him. <\/p>\n
When Margaret Keegan went on to Facebook the following morning, she saw messages from the O\u2019Connor brothers from the previous night, indicating that Eoin O\u2019Connor was missing.<\/p>\n
When she found out that Eoin O\u2019Connor and Anthony Keegan had gone to Cavan to collect \u20ac15,000 from Symes, Margaret Keegan went to Mountjoy Garda station on April 23rd and filed a missing-person report.<\/p>\n
Symbiotic relationship<\/p>\n
Neville van der Westhuizen had been living in Co Cavan for several years before 2014. His father Peter had moved from Durban in South Africa to Ballyjamesduff in 2000, with Neville following three years later. The father and son had worked in the Liffey Meats processing plant in Co Cavan.<\/p>\n
Peter van der Westhuizen said he knew his son had a partner \u2013 a \u201cquiet\u201d girl named Ruth Lawrence who had worked in the nearby Crover House Hotel and was also a tattoo artist.<\/p>\n
In December 2013, Lawrence and Neville van der Westhuizen began renting Patricks Cottage on the Westmeath side of Lough Sheelin, a picturesque lake straddling the borders of Meath, Westmeath and Cavan.<\/p>\n
Retribution<\/p>\n
The trial was told that Lawrence and van der Westhuizen were in a Dublin pub in 2013 when a plan was formed to rob drugs from Eoin O\u2019Connor\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
The jury heard that a person identified in court only as Mr CD, who had initially put O\u2019Connor in touch with van der Westhuizen, wanted O\u2019Connor\u2019s drugs stolen as retribution.<\/p>\n
Also in the pub that night was Stacey Symes and her father Jason Symes, who began selling \u201cweed\u201d for van der Westhuizen in Ballyjamesduff following the meeting. <\/p>\n
Stacey Symes was attending a post-Leaving Certificate course at the time and the jury was told she sold \u201cinsignificant quantities\u201d of cannabis on campus.<\/p>\n
The Symes would later become State-protected witnesses, coming forward to the Garda in 2014 to give voluntary statements about Lawrence and van der Westhuizen\u2019s involvement in the murders of the two missing men.<\/p>\n
In her evidence, Stacey Symes recalled a trip to Dublin before Easter 2014 when van der Westhuizen collected a gun.<\/p>\n
She said van der Westhuizen was sitting beside her in the car with a gun on his lap, which he told her was loaded. <\/p>\n
Stacey and Jason Symes alleged that they were left for hours in Burger King on O\u2019Connell Street on Good Friday April 18th, 2014, when Lawrence and van der Westhuizen used Stacey Symes\u2019s Nissan Micra car to rob drugs from Eoin O\u2019Connor\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
Boating weather<\/p>\n
Jason Symes testified that Eoin O\u2019Connor had visited his house on Easter Monday, April 21st, as he owed the drug dealer \u201cstupid money\u201d for cigarettes. He said O\u2019Connor was trying to make contact with van der Westhuizen, as van der Westhuizen owed him \u20ac15,000.<\/p>\n
Stacey Symes, who was also in the kitchen that morning, said her father had telephoned van der Westhuizen, who was \u201cstonewalling, trying to tell him not to let Eoin know where he was\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the same day, not far away, Lawrence was inquiring of her landlord whether she could hire a boat to go out on Lough Sheelin.<\/p>\n
Boat builder Declan McCabe said that when he was collecting the rent that day, Lawrence had asked about a boat with a cabin but all he had was a lake boat. <\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe she wanted some shelter but no reason was given,\u201d he told the jury.<\/p>\n
Last contact<\/p>\n
The following evening, April 22nd, Eoin O\u2019Connor drove himself and Keegan to Ballyjamesduff in his mother\u2019s Ford Focus to meet van der Westhuizen.<\/p>\n
The trial heard the men\u2019s phones used cell sites in Dublin at 5.43pm before travelling in a northwesterly direction, consistent with a journey along the N3 towards Cavan.<\/p>\n
At 6.05pm Eoin O\u2019Connor sent a family member a text message saying: \u201cHe won\u2019t meet if anyone with me, bod is with me and I\u2019ve someone halfway.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a phone call between Eoin O\u2019Connor and van der Westhuizen at about 7.10pm where it is assumed a specific meeting point was suggested.<\/p>\n
Lawrence\u2019s phone and another phone associated with the couple had used cell sites consistent with travelling towards Cavan town and being in the town after 6.25pm. The last activity on Lawrence\u2019s phone was at 7.36pm.<\/p>\n
The last contact on Keegan\u2019s mobile phone was at 8.32pm, while the last text Eoin O\u2019Connor received was at 8.38pm.<\/p>\n
The prosecution\u2019s contention was that both men were likely murdered later on the evening of April 22nd.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors believe O\u2019Connor and Keegan were shot in a field not far from Patricks Cottage \u2013 the rental home where Lawrence lived with van der Westhuizen \u2013 before the bodies were moved to Inchicup Island on Lough Sheelin later that night.<\/p>\n
\u2018Mayhem\u2019<\/p>\n
Stacey and Jason Symes went to Patricks Cottage the following evening \u2013 April 23rd \u2013 as she said her father had received a phone call informing him that there were men at his house looking for O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
The atmosphere in the cottage that night was described by the Symes as extremely intense and \u201cjust mayhem\u201d.<\/p>\n
When she walked in the door, Stacey Symes said she was greeted by Latvian national Vytautis Bitaris, who was \u201chyper, like he was on speed\u201d. <\/p>\n
Stacey Symes described van der Westhuizen and Lawrence as \u201cquite hypey\u201d, with Lawrence trying to talk to her and van der Westhuizen trying to talk to her father.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we were sitting around in the kitchen, they were coked out of their head,\u201d Jason Symes told the jury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember Ruth saying she had shot Eoin but it went wrong; that he had twisted or something,\u201d Stacey Symes said in evidence.<\/p>\n
Asked again by the prosecutor what she could remember hearing about the shooting, the protected witness said: \u201cJust that Ruth shot him, he twisted, it went wrong and Neville took over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacey Symes told defence counsel: \u201cShe is not a murderer because Neville murdered the two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason Symes recalled there was \u201csomething said about \u2018the job is done or it\u2019s done\u2019\u201d in relation to what happened to the two men.<\/p>\n
\u201cRuth said that whatever she\u2019d done, she\u2019d done and that\u2019s it, and I think he took over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Former chief State pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy told the jury she conducted a postmortem on O\u2019Connor\u2019s remains and identified three gunshot wounds; one to the head, one to the abdomen and another to the left hand.<\/p>\n
In her evidence, Cassidy said the gunshot wound to the head was the fatal injury, whereas the bullet through the abdomen was \u201ca potentially fatal wound\u201d.<\/p>\n
In his closing speech, prosecuting counsel Michael O\u2019Higgins SC referred to the Symes\u2019s testimony about shooting O\u2019Connor in the stomach \u2013 the twisting and headlock details.<\/p>\n
He asked the jury to consider: \u201cHow is all this information coming forward if it wasn\u2019t heard?\u201d<\/p>\n
A gun in the countryside<\/p>\n
In her evidence, Stacey Symes said van der Westhuizen had instructed Jason Symes to \u201csay certain things\u201d. <\/p>\n
When they returned to Patricks Cottage, Stacey Symes said the couple told her they had put O\u2019Connor\u2019s body under a tree and asked for their help to move the bodies.<\/p>\n
\u201cRuth kept pointing behind me down towards the field down towards the water … they said there was a ledge and they had to swim … she said they had to put them [the bodies] on top of each other and under a tree,\u201d Stacey Symes said.<\/p>\n
The bodies were to be moved by boat, she said. \u201cRuth wanted her and me on the boat, so if someone saw it, it looked like two girls on a boat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Stacey Symes also said Lawrence had shown her \u201ca little black\u201d gun in her bedroom and had demonstrated how to load the bullets. The witness told the defence that the accused \u201cwas in the countryside with a gun; that\u2019s not a normal thing\u201d. <\/p>\n
Vytautis Bitaris testified that van der Westhuizen had asked him to do some cleaning or building around the cottage on the day after the men were last seen alive.<\/p>\n
When he arrived, Bitaris said he had noticed a fire burning between the house and the sheds and had seen bags of clothes. <\/p>\n
It was the prosecution case that these clothes belonged to Lawrence and van der Westhuizen, as the deceased had been fully dressed when their bodies were found.<\/p>\n
Later that evening, Bitaris said he had helped load four \u201cbig stones\u201d or H-blocks into the boot of van der Westhuizen\u2019s car.<\/p>\n
The State had argued the couple was aware that Inchicup Island was not a safe location for the men\u2019s remains \u201cin anything but the short term\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is believed that there was a plan for the men\u2019s bodies to be put in a boat, weighed down with the H-blocks and sunk in a part of the lake where there was much deeper water but this had never materialised.<\/p>\n
\u2018Still waiting\u2019<\/p>\n
The trial was told that van der Westhuizen, Lawrence and the two Symes then fled the area. They slept in a disused house in the town of Ashbourne for a few hours on April 25th before travelling to Rosslare Port in Co Wexford that evening. There they boarded the 8.45pm sailing to Fishguard in Wales before continuing on to London.<\/p>\n
Within a few days Lawrence and van der Westhuizen flew to South Africa, while the Symes later returned to Ireland.<\/p>\n
When Declan McCabe accompanied garda\u00ed to Patricks Cottage later that week on April 29th, H-blocks weighing 40kg were found at the rear of the house.<\/p>\n
The Ford Focus car that Eoin O\u2019Connor had driven was found at Lough Owel car park on the N4 in Westmeath on April 25th. <\/p>\n
It was the prosecution case that O\u2019Connor\u2019s car had been \u201cdumped\u201d there by Lawrence on the morning of April 23rd.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor\u2019s mobile phone was located in the driver\u2019s door and had been switched off. There was an unsent text message on the phone from 8.38pm. <\/p>\n
The message had no recipient and read: \u201cStill waiting on him, phone off again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Dreadful smell\u2019![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TJKFIUAXXKZUJXJHEFZLT6GPEE.jpg\")
The scene on Inchicup Island, Lough Sheelan, Co Cavan, where garda\u00ed discovered the bodies of the two missing men. Photograph: Philip Fitzpatrick <\/p>\n
Pat Smith told the jury that he was fishing on Lough Sheelin on May 18th, 2014 when he detected a \u201cdreadful smell coming off\u201d one of the lake\u2019s 10 islands, about 100m offshore. He had to pull the boat away from the shoreline because of the strength of the odour.<\/p>\n
He said he became suspicious because the previous week he saw the Garda Water Unit \u201cdiving elsewhere\u201d while searching for the \u201ctwo bodies, the missing men\u201d. <\/p>\n
On May 26th, two bodies were discovered with the help of a Garda sniffer dog. <\/p>\n
Inchicup Island was declared a crime scene, with the bodies of O\u2019Connor and Keegan removed from the island on May 27th, 2014.<\/p>\n
Keegan had died from two gunshot wounds to the head and neck, which the prosecution called \u201ctargeted shots\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was the prosecution case that Keegan had been fatally shot first, as he was there as O\u2019Connor\u2019s protector and was the person most likely to be shot first.<\/p>\n
In her evidence, Stacey Symes told the jury that Lawrence thought it was funny that Keegan had said he would die for his friend O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
Extradition![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7PCFOTJG5ZCBHL6L3SVAOUH7UE.jpg\")
The house in the suburb of Pellissier, Bloemfontein, South Africa, where Ruth Lawrence was arrested in October 2022. Photograph: Bill Corcoran <\/p>\n
The Symes contacted garda\u00ed in 2014 when they returned to Ireland and gave voluntary statements about Lawrence and van der Westhuizen\u2019s involvement in the murders of the men.<\/p>\n
An arrest warrant was issued for Lawrence in 2016. It would be 2023 before she was extradited from South Africa, almost a decade after the men\u2019s bodies were found.<\/p>\n
Van der Westhuizen is currently serving a 15-year sentence in Westville Prison in Durban for a 2020 conviction for kidnapping, attempted murder and murder. <\/p>\n
An application to extradite van der Westhuizen to Ireland to face trial will take place when he has finished serving his sentence in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The text message was ominous. At 5.57pm on April 22nd, 2014, Eoin O\u2019Connor texted a family member: \u201cHave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[52142,79204,42,79203,43,47671,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-136885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-anthony-keegan","9":"tag-eoin-oconnor","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-neville-van-der-westhuizen","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-ruth-lawrence","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}