Two sentenced after perjury

The two people convicted of perjury in connection with the collapse of the Liam Keane(left) murder trial have been sentenced to community service.

21 year old David Murphy from Lee Estate has been ordered to carry out 150 hours of community service while 23 year old Amanda McNamara has been ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service.

More from RTE News on her sentence,

She had given a number of statements to gardaí identifying Keane as the killer of Eric Leamy who was stabbed to death during a fight in Limerick in August 2001.

But after taking the oath at that trial, she then claimed that she remembered nothing of the night of the murder, because she was a drug addict and an alcoholic and that all she knew about that night was what she had heard from others.

As a result of this action by her and others the murder trial collapsed.
She subsequently admitted that she had lied, had never been a drug addict, and that she was motivated by fear for herself, her child and her family.

There was evidence that she had been intimidated a number of times by Liam Keane and that her father, a taxi driver, had been intimidated by the late crime boss Kieran Keane, Liam Keane's uncle.

The murder trial collapsed after a number of other people including the two convicted denied making statements identifying Mr. Keane as the killer of 19-year-old Eric Leamy.

Mr Leamy died on August 28, 2001, after he suffered a fatal stab wound to his side. Following the collapse of the trial, Mr Keane infamously gave a two-fingered salute to the assembled media outside the court.

::.. RTE Radio Report on the Sentencing
Relaplayer required

::.. A tale of witness intimidation : The Limerick Blogger (posted February 8th, 2006 )

::.. RTE Report on the Collapse of the case back in 2003
Relaplayer required