A man whose son was beaten to death before his body was dumped in a woodland has said the murderers did not show “one bit of remorse for what they did” despite listening to “horror stories” in court during their trial.
The family of Kieran Quilligan (47) delivered victim impact statements at the Central Criminal Court in Cork on Wednesday as Niall Long (33) and Luke Taylor (28) were sentenced to life imprisonment by Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford.
Long, formerly of St Michael’s Close, Mahon, Cork, and Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock, Cork, pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Quilligan on a date unknown between September 1st, 2023 and January 29th, 2024. However, a jury found them both guilty of murder.
Mr Quilligan’s mother, Catherine O’Flynn, his father Stephen Quilligan, and his partner, Colette O’Driscoll, on Wednesday told the court how Mr Quilligan’s death had affected them.
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Ms O’Flynn said the family clung on to the hope that Kieran was still alive after he disappeared from his flat in Cork city on September 1st, 2023, and that it was all just a bad dream from which they would one day wake up.
“I remember the months unfolding. How could I forget? Each day the weather conditions were getting worse – it felt like there were never so many storms. I’d stare out the windows thinking ‘God love him – he is out there in all this’, while still clinging to the hope he was still alive," she said.
“We were living in a world of loss, fear and hope until January 29th, 2024 when Kieran’s skeletal remains were found. Our hearts were broken in a million pieces – our worst nightmare come true,” added Ms O’Flynn, who said that if her love could have saved her son, he would still be alive.
Stephen Quilligan said they knew foul play had been involved in Kieran’s disappearance, but it was not until they sat through the murder trial and heard the evidence that they realised the full horror of what had happened.
“We were shocked, angry, in disbelief that someone could do this to another person and pretend like nothing happened,” he said. “For the last three weeks we have sat here listening to horror stories about my son and the two defendants didn’t show one bit of remorse for what they did.”
He thanked An Garda Síochána for not giving up when searching for Kieran and treating him “like a human being”.
Ms O’Driscoll said she adored Kieran and they had been told before his disappearance that they were to be housed together.
“Kieran was going to get the keys to his long-awaited castle,” she said.
Det Garda Ann O’Sullivan outlined the background to the murder. She said Long and Taylor killed Mr Quilligan in retaliation for an incident earlier on September 1st, 2023 when Mr Quilligan and another man had robbed Long of drugs and cash in Cork city centre.
The three men were known to each other as they were users of heroin and crack cocaine. Taylor lured Mr Quilligan from his flat on Anderson’s Quay to St Finbarr’s Place, where he was attacked by him and Long before being bundled into the boot of a Toyota Rav 4.
Gardaí were able to link the vehicle to Long and tracked it driving to the Little Island area, where they dumped Mr Quilligan’s body off a farmyard. Gardaí tracked the vehicle returning there three days later, when the defendants collected and moved Mr Quilligan’s body.
Garda were able to track the vehicle’s movements to Whitewell, Rostellan near Midleton. A search of the area by a cadaver dog on January 29th, 2024 led them to Mr Quilligan’s skeletal remains, which had been dumped in a gravel bag in low lying forestry.
Det Garda O’Sullivan said Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster was unable to give a cause of death because of the long interval between Mr Quilligan’s death and the postmortem.
She testified that many of Mr Quilligan’s fractures were “suggestive of a blow with a blunt instrument like a hammer and there is no doubt at all they are consistent with a severe and significant assault”.
