Beautician was ‘naive' when she tried to help killer ex evade arrest after shooting
'BLIND EYE' |
Dominic McGinn SC, for Rachel Redmond (35), said today that despite his client's plea of not guilty, she now accepts the jury's verdict and understands why they convicted her
Rachel Redmond (File photo: Collins Courts)
Dominic McGinn SC, for Rachel Redmond (35), said today that despite his client's plea of not guilty, she now accepts the jury's verdict and understands why they convicted her. Counsel asked for leniency for Redmond, the younger sister of career criminal Robert "Roo" Redmond, with the court hearing she once worked in security for the Saudi Arabian embassy.
Mr McGinn said the relationship with Cooney "fed into her behaviour" and prevented her from "realising what would have been abundantly obvious to everyone else".
Redmond wrote a letter of apology to the family of Jordan Davis, who Wayne Cooney shot dead in an execution-style killing on May 22, 2019 at a laneway beside Our Lady Immaculate Junior National School in Darndale on Dublin's northside.
Mr Davis was pushing his four-month-old son in a pram when Cooney cycled up behind him and fired eight shots, three of which struck him, causing immediate death. A child who happened to be cycling through the laneway was just metres away when Cooney started firing.
Cooney fled the scene on his bicycle and went to a bus stop near the Clarehall Shopping Centre, where Rachel Redmond arranged to pick him up in her friend's car. That night, she arranged for Cooney to stay at the Clayton Hotel.
A jury convicted Redmond, from Coolock but with an address at Cliftonville Avenue, North Belfast, Co Antrim, of attempting to impede Cooney's apprehension or prosecution while knowing or believing him to have committed murder. Following her conviction, she shouted from the dock: "I didn't do it though, I didn't do anything."
She had taken the stand at her trial, saying that she did not know what Cooney had done, that she was in love with him and was unable to see the bad in him.
Mr McGinn today told the court that Redmond now accepts the jury verdict. He asked Mr Justice Paul Burns to consider that, despite his client's efforts to impede the investigation, gardai did arrest Wayne Cooney and he was convicted of murder. Redmond was, counsel said, "perhaps naive, blinded by the relationship and turned a blind eye rather than deliberately setting out to commit a crime."
Asking for leniency, Mr McGinn pointed out his client's "solid work record" over her adult life. She has worked as a beautician, including for the IFSC and Aer Lingus. She has also worked in security for the Saudi Arabian embassy and for the psychiatric unit at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
Mr McGinn handed in testimonies from Redmond's mother, father and a former employer.
The testimonials refer to her as a "hard-working, kind, loving young lady" for whom these offences are "very much out of character", Mr McGinn said.
Rachel Redmond (File photo: Collins Courts)
News in 90 seconds - 12th May 2025
Mr Justice Burns adjourned the matter to next Monday to deliver sentence.
In April, 2024 Rachel Redmond's brother, Robert 'Roo' Redmond, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder Jordan Davis. Text exchanges showed that Robert Redmond was demanding Mr Davis repay him a drug debt of €70,000.
In one exchange, 19 days before Cooney carried out the murder, Robert Redmond warned Mr Davis: "I'm on your case mate, it won't be long" and "soon, very soon bang bang".
A career criminal, Robert Redmond had 99 previous convictions, including two counts for possession of firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
In 2022, Robert Redmond received the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering father-of-eight Barry Wolverson (40) at Madigan's Yard, Kileek Lane, Swords, Co Dublin on January 17, 2020.
Following Rachel Redmond's trial, the jury took seven hours and 33 minutes over three days to unanimously accept the State's case that she drove Cooney away from the scene and later checked him into the Clayton Hotel near Dublin Airport on the night of the murder.
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"It vitiated the process and the court should not permit the fruits of the charging to be now available to the prosecution," he added. Richard Satchwell's Senior council Brendan Grehan (left) and solicitor Eddie Burke. During the trial and in the absence of the jury, Mr Grehan applied to exclude Satchwell's 'cryptic' reply of 'Guilty or not guilty, guilty' when he was formally charged with the murder of Tina on October 13, 2023. Photo: Niall Carson/PA He said the defendant's solicitor Eddie Burke had left the garda station at 7.07pm that evening and didn't arrive back until 8.10pm - three minutes after the charging took place. The lawyer said his client's reply after caution was more prejudicial than probative and would create difficulties in terms of how the jury could be properly directed. 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Richard Satchwell's Senior council Brendan Grehan (left) and solicitor Eddie Burke. Mr Grehan had sought the discharge of the jury on foot of instructions from his client. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Mr Grehan said the facts of the case "shouted and screamed for themselves" in terms of what Satchwell did and didn't do. "They are not facts that need to be nudged or pushed for the jury in any particular way". Counsel said it was beyond remedy at this stage and the court should discharge the jury. Ms Small called Mr Grehan's application "wholly inappropriate", describing the charge as balanced, fair and extremely comprehensible. "The criticism is unfounded, a court will rarely outline all the evidence, that is a matter for the jury". In his ruling, the judge said this was a difficult case in which to sum up the evidence for the jury and he didn't accept that his charge was "so wildly unbalanced". He disagreed that the absence of references to certain parts of the evidence in any sense justified the jury being discharged. Mr Justice McDermott refused the application but did give the jury further directions in relation to two matters of which complaints were made, one relating to the detailed evidence of Lorraine Howard concerning her half sister Tina, the other to evidence that Satchwell loved or was "besotted" with his wife. Read More How a concrete patch under the stairs in Youghal revealed Tina Satchwell's tragic fate
