![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4813071_5_articleinlinemobile_DSC_8446.jpeg\" "\\"John")
John Paul Thornton admitted in court that he, and not Kieran Quilligan, got into the altercation with Niall Long (pictured).<\/p>\nKieran Quilligan told his partner as he was leaving their apartment that he would be back in \u201cfive or 10 minutes\u201d but that was the last time she ever saw him, she told the judge and jury at the murder trial which opened in Cork on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Colette O\u2019Driscoll testified at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork that her partner left the apartment at around 8.30pm or 9pm on Friday, September 1, 2023, in the company of Luke Taylor \u2014 one of the two men on trial for Mr Quilligan\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n
33-year-old Niall Long, formerly of St. Michael\u2019s Close, Mahon, Cork, and 27-year-old Luke Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock, Cork, pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork to the single charge of murder.<\/p>\n
The murder count against each man states that on a date unknown between September 1, 2023, and January 29, 2024, at an unknown location within the state in the District Court area of Cork City he did murder Kieran Quilligan, contrary to Common Law.<\/p>\n
John Paul Thornton admitted in court that he, and not Kieran Quilligan, got into the altercation with Niall Long (pictured).<\/p>\n
Ms O\u2019Driscoll testified that she and Mr Quilligan had been in a relationship for 10 years at that time in September two years ago and were living in a Simon Community apartment at Riverview on Anderson\u2019s Quay.<\/p>\n
She said he had been on and off drugs through his life and at this time he was taking crack cocaine, Ms O\u2019Driscoll said. She became worried after a few days when he did not return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI met him (Luke Taylor) on top of Oliver Plunkett Street towards the bus station. I asked him where did he leave Kieran. He said he didn\u2019t know, he left him on Morrisson\u2019s Island.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she had only known Luke Taylor for the previous few weeks when he was around the Simon Community area. She said Mr Quilligan bought drugs from Niall Long.<\/p>\n
John Paul Thornton, known as Bubbles, was with Kieran Quilligan on the morning of September 1, 2023, when they went to buy drugs from a man, later identified as Niall Long, at a side street off York Street, between MacCurtain Street and Wellington Road.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He knew Kieran Quilligan 25 years and they took drugs together.<\/p>\n
Asked about that morning, he said: \u201cWe went to buy drugs from some fella. I can\u2019t remember.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n We started arguing over money. We \u2014 me and Kieran \u2014 ended up just taking the drugs off him. We ended up snatching the bag off him.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
He said he went back to Kieran\u2019s flat and they used drugs. Mr Thornton described himself as being off his head. He said that in the bag that they snatched there was \u20ac200 worth of heroin (gear), \u20ac200 worth of crack cocaine, tablets and \u20ac500 to \u20ac600 in cash.<\/p>\n
Mr Thornton admitted that he, and not Kieran Quilligan, got into the altercation with Niall Long, catching him in a head-lock and dragging him to the ground. A couple who lived near St. Fin Barre\u2019s Place heard men shouting and banging in the laneway at around 9.15pm and called the garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n
The trial before Ms Justice Siobh\u00e1n Lankford and a jury of 10 men and two women continues on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kieran Quilligan told his partner as he was leaving their apartment that he would be back in \u201cfive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[79,54,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-68630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68630","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=68630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}