![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_I200907_161238_1395060oTextTRMRMMGLPICT000210629067o.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Court of Appeal also heard today that since moving to an adult prison the appellant, who admitted to the murder of Glen \u201cOssie\u201d Osborne (20), has since assaulted a female prison officer and sold heroin to fellow inmates<\/p>\n
Glen Osborne<\/p>\n
A youth who was 16 when he murdered his friend – who he claimed had labelled him a “rat” – should not be sentenced to life in prison, a court has been told.<\/p>\n
The Court of Appeal also heard today that since moving to an adult prison the appellant, who admitted to the murder of Glen \u201cOssie\u201d Osborne (20), has since assaulted a female prison officer and sold heroin to fellow inmates.<\/p>\n
The now 22-year-old, who cannot be named because he was a minor at the time the offence was committed, pleaded guilty in August 2020 to the murder of Mr Osborne at Ballybough House, Ballybough, Dublin on April 15, 2020. Mr Osborne’s partner Lauren Cray gave birth to their first child two months after his death.<\/p>\n
The defendant was sentenced to life with a review after ten years by Mr Justice Paul McDermott at the Central Criminal Court on December 16, 2020. He had no previous convictions at the time.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice McDermott said that the attack had “many of the hallmarks of immaturity and stupidity, lack of judgement and proportionality” but was not of “the most egregious or malicious” type such as a meticulously planned killing. Therefore, he said, he could allow a review of the life sentence after ten years.<\/p>\n
The youth\u2019s case came before the Court of Appeal for re-sentencing today. Since the appellant has been jailed, the Supreme Court has returned a landmark ruling that life sentences for a child convicted of murder should only be imposed in exceptional cases where the evidence showed the intentions and actions of the child were akin to those of an adult.<\/p>\n
The ruling also said a sentencing court does not have jurisdiction to review terms of detention imposed on child offenders.<\/p>\n
Marc Thompson SC, for the youth, noted the defendant\u2019s sentence had been quashed and remitted back to the Court of Appeal for re-sentence following that Supreme Court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n
Before the hearing got underway Paul Carroll SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, called Detective Inspector Kenneth Hoare to give evidence in relation to two convictions the defendant had received since his incarceration for murder.<\/p>\n
The Det Insp told the court that the youth had received a six-month prison sentence at Dublin District Court in May 2024 for having heroin with a value of approximately \u20ac280 for sale or supply within the prison on February 16, 2023. He said a possession of drugs charge was taken into consideration.<\/p>\n
Det Insp Hoare confirmed the defendant had also received a five-month prison sentence in January 2023 for assaulting a female prison officer at Mountjoy on April 19, 2022. He said the woman was kicked in the stomach and elbowed in the head, resulting in a small cut to her left palm.<\/p>\n
Opening the appeal against the defendant\u2019s sentence, Mr Thompson argued that many of the factors warranting the imposition of a life sentence for a youth offender as identified by Ms Justice O\u2019Malley in her judgment were not present in this case. He said there was an absence of evidence of planned efforts to conceal guilt, or of an intention to inflict sexual violence or particularly brutal physical violence.<\/p>\n
He said it had been accepted that the appellant didn\u2019t come to the scene intending to murder the deceased, who was \u201ca good friend of his\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Thompson said the defendant had shown \u201cgenuine remorse\u201d and there was an early plea of guilty.<\/p>\n
A guard who intercepted the youth after the incident noted he was \u201cdistressed and crying\u201d, counsel said, and when placed in a cell he required assistance because of his \u201cdistraught state\u201d.<\/p>\n
The barrister said death had been caused by a single stab wound and there \u201cimmediate panic and distress\u201d from the appellant afterwards.<\/p>\n
Although the knife was brought to the scene, it wasn\u2019t produced straight away, Mr Thompson said. There was an initial fight with strikes on both sides, the deceased had the upper hand, and it was at that point that the knife was produced, said counsel.<\/p>\n
He said this was a case which demonstrated \u201can angry impulsivity\u201d and the \u201clashing out by a child\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Thompson asked the court, in structuring the sentence, to take into account \u201cthe most obvious and important thing\u201d – his client\u2019s plea of guilty.<\/p>\n
He noted rehabilitation was \u201ca work in progress\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Thompson said his client is someone who did not have a stable family life. His upbringing was \u201cturbulent\u201d, counsel said, and his grandparents had played a \u201ckey role\u201d as his parents were \u201cin and out of prison\u201d and had not provided any structure to his childhood.<\/p>\n
Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice John Edwards and Ms Justice Tara Burns, noted it was clear from the appellant\u2019s probation report that he has a \u201cchronic drug abuse issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Thompson said the transfer from a juvenile centre to a prison has had a significant impact on the appellant. He asked the court to consider suspending a \u201csignificant portion\u201d of the new sentence imposed, noting that when released, the appellant will \u201crequire assistance\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the appellant had been dealing with his drug addiction issues whilst in Oberstown but that stopped when he was transferred to Mountjoy. He said this was as a result of availability, but noted the defendant had also \u201crejected\u201d some of the forms of assistance.<\/p>\n
Mr Thompson said the appellant\u2019s engagement with education was \u201csporadic\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the defendant has completed his junior cert in history, geography and maths, has done a number of courses in art and is currently taking part in a music class.<\/p>\n
Concluding his submissions, Mr Thompson said nothing he had said should be interpreted as negating or taking away from the appellant\u2019s full responsibility for Glen Osborne\u2019s death. He said his client had asked him to apologise once again to Mr Osborne\u2019s family and handed in a letter of apology from his client to the court.<\/p>\n
In response, Mr Carroll said the Director\u2019s position was that she is not going to advocate for a \u201cspecific sentence\u201d, noting that two judgments relating to this area are awaited.<\/p>\n
He highlighted as an aggravating factor a phone call between the appellant and another person, in which the defendant said: \u201cDon\u2019t go around calling me a rat. You know what I\u2019m going to do to him\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the defendant had brought a knife concealed in a bag and when the deceased was getting the better of him, he went to the bag, stabbed Mr Osborne and then fled the scene.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Edwards said the court would reserve judgment and directed that a governor\u2019s and education report be prepared.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging the presence of both families at the hearing and their desire for closure in terms of the legal process, Mr Justice Edwards said the court would be \u201csensitive to that\u201d and would endeavour to provide its judgment \u201cas soon as we can\u201d.<\/p>\n
The youth\u2019s sentencing hearing was told that the day before he died, the deceased went with the appellant, and they got drugs without making payment.<\/p>\n
The following day the windows of Mr Osborne’s home were smashed, in what was said to be retaliation for the fact payment had not been made.<\/p>\n
Mr Osborne believed that the defendant had identified his home to those people. On the day of the murder there were “angry messages to and fro” and the defendant was labelled a “rat”.<\/p>\n
The defendant went to meet the deceased carrying a white bag with a knife in it.<\/p>\n
There was a fight which was broken up by onlookers but then a second fight began that was caught on CCTV. The defendant, who had by now taken the knife from the bag, could be seen swinging his arm and stabbing Mr Osborne once in the chest.<\/p>\n
A pathologist’s report showed that he died from a single stab wound that penetrated the heart, causing massive blood loss.<\/p>\n
Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? Making us your preferred source on Google<\/a> means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Court of Appeal also heard today that since moving to an adult prison the appellant, who admitted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-411185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-courts","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411185","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=411185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}