Beautician (35) jailed for helping her killer ex-boyfriend 'lie low' after murder
A woman who helped her then-partner – "an extremely dangerous" killer – "lie low" after he gunned down a young drug dealer on Dublin's northside, told her supporters 'I'll be home soon, don't worry' after she was jailed for four years.
In March, a jury convicted Rachel Redmond (35) – the younger sister of career criminal Robert "Roo" Redmond – of attempting to impede Wayne Cooney's apprehension or prosecution while knowing or believing him to have committed murder by driving him from the scene and paying for a hotel room in her name.
Advertisement
The trial heard evidence that, after he got into the car, Redmond remarked to Cooney that there had been a shooting in Darndale and he replied: "It's a mad place."
Cooney had, minutes earlier, shot dead young father Jordan Davis in an execution-style killing on May 22nd, 2019, at a laneway beside Our Lady Immaculate Junior National School in Darndale. 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 his immediate death.
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 paid for Cooney to stay at the Clayton Hotel near Dublin Airport.
At Monday's sentencing hearing at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Paul Burns said that rather than being 'revulsed' after learning about the murder, Redmond 'chose to assist' her then-partner and allowed him to "lie low".
Advertisement
He said that there was no evidence that Redmond was reluctant to help Cooney, and she aided him to avoid capture when important forensic evidence could have been gathered.
The judge said that the maximum sentence for this type of crime is ten years and that Redmond's actions fell in the 'upper end of middle range' for offending.
He said that her assistance in the crime was 'not spur of the moment' and that Redmond must have given considerable thought to what she was doing over the course of the day.
Dominic McGinn SC, defence counsel for Redmond, said last Monday that despite his client's plea of not guilty, she now accepts the jury's verdict and understands why they convicted her.
Advertisement
Mr Justice Burns said he had 'reservations' about Mr McGinn's statement that Redmond was 'blinded by the relationship and turned a blind eye rather than deliberately setting out to commit a crime."
The judge said that he had considered the mitigating circumstances in the case, including Redmond's lack of previous relevant convictions and her good work record.
The court was told last week that Redmond 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.
He set a headline sentence of six years on each count, but reduced that to five years with both counts to run concurrently. He suspended the final year of the sentence for a period of three years.
Advertisement
Redmond's only reaction to the sentencing being passed was to say: 'Thank you, judge'. She told those who had come to support her: 'I'll be home soon, don't worry.'
Redmond had taken the stand at her trial, claiming 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.
Last week, Redmond's counsel submitted that his client was "perhaps naive" and had "turned a blind eye rather than deliberately setting out to commit a crime". The court heard that Redmond had also written a letter of apology to the family of Jordan Davis.
At trial, the prosecution described Redmond's testimony that she didn't know Wayne Cooney had committed "any crime at all" as "absolutely risible".
Advertisement
Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, for the State, added: "The accused is saying 'I didn't know'; If you said that to a horse you would get a kick".
Following Redmond's trial, the jury took seven hours and 33 minutes over three days to unanimously accept the State's case.
After she was convicted, she shouted from the dock: "I didn't do it though, I didn't do anything."
The trial heard Ms Redmond was in phone contact with Cooney just five minutes after the shooting and remained talking to him for over three minutes. She later went to the Clayton Hotel that night, where she used her own bank card to pay for a room for Cooney while he remained out of sight.
It was the State's case that drug dealer Robert Redmond was engaged "in some acrimony" with Mr Davis. A detective testified that "tick lists" found at two addresses linked to Robert Redmond had contained the name "Jordo" – the same nickname Jordan Davis was known by – with amounts up to €153,000 recorded as owing.
€70,000 was written beside one entry with the words "not yet" in capital letters.
Evidence was given that Mr Davis was warned by Robert Redmond – "I'm on your case mate, it won't be long" and "soon, very soon bang bang" – 19 days before he was shot to death.
Ireland
Michael Gaine case: What we know so far as human r...
Read More
Cooney was convicted of the murder in 2022, while Robert Redmond pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiring together with Cooney to murder Mr Davis on or about May 22nd, 2019, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
A career criminal, Robert Redmond has 99 previous convictions, which include those for the possession of firearms and ammunition with intention to endanger life and the possession of heroin, while he is currently serving a life sentence for murder. He also has convictions for blackmail and extortion, threats to kill and assault causing harm.
Rachel Redmond, who is from Coolock but has an address at Clifdenville Road, Cliftonville Avenue, Belfast, Co Antrim, was charged on two counts that on or about May 22nd and May 23rd, 2019, in the county of the City of Dublin, did knowingly or believing that another person, namely Wayne Cooney, committed an arrestable offence, to wit murder, without reasonable excuse did an act with intent to impede his apprehension or prosecution.
Ms Redmond had pleaded not guilty to the two counts.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Our politicians are the least serious in history – and that includes you, Nigel
This week an appalling case reminded us just how broken Britain is. We learnt that a 15-year-old boy killed elderly dogwalker Bhim Kohli while a female friend, aged 12, filmed it on her mobile phone. Both were laughing as the beloved grandfather lay dying in the street. How on earth can it have come to this? The case is emblematic of everything that has gone wrong – and continues to go wrong – in our fragmented, seemingly lawless society. We are led by complete incompetents: from police administering two-tier justice right the way up to our Prime Minister. It is little wonder there is a university course running in France on why the UK is such a failure. And Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's answer to our capital's woes, despite knife and other crimes soaring? Decriminalising cannabis. We knew Labour were not fit for purpose before they even took office, but this latest example of idiocy from City Hall really does sum up the problem with having hapless, careerist socialists anywhere near the levers of power. And now Reform UK appears to have imploded. Having abandoned the Conservative Party after an inept 14 years of governance, which left us with higher bills, higher taxes, higher NHS waiting lists and higher immigration, voters had hoped that Nigel Farage and his motley crew might bring the salvation Britain so desperately needs. Reform was meant to represent the alternative to 'uniparty' politics by ripping up the political rule book and restoring good old fashioned common sense. What we have learnt in the past 24 hours, however, is that the one thing uniting all four major parties in the UK (and I'm including the ludicrous Liberal Democrats in this, with their clown of a leader Sir Ed Davey) is just how thoroughly unserious they all are. Westminster currently resembles a cross-party circus act; what has the electorate done to deserve this? Let's take them one by one. We currently cannot believe a word slippery Starmer says after a string of Labour lies on tax, winter fuel, defence spending, relations with the EU, the Chagos Islands, immigration – you name it. They promised 6,500 more teachers with their vindictive VAT raid on private school fees and this week it was revealed teacher numbers are actually down since they took office. Millionaires are leaving, businesses are folding, more tax rises are on the way. We've got an Attorney General who wants to defend terrorists like Osama bin Laden's right-hand man while the justice system imprisons mothers like Lucy Connolly for 'hurty words' on the internet. The Left accuses Reform of being amateurs – and then run the country as if it's a university student union staffed by drop-outs. Yet the Right-wing opposition appears equally as childish. This week, we have had the shadow chancellor Mel Stride denouncing Liz Truss's premiership with some weasel words about the Tories 'never again undermining fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford'. The former prime minister – once famously compared to a lettuce – hit back with an excoriating statement on the political playground that is X, accusing Sir Mel of being a 'creature of the system' by siding with 'failed Treasury orthodoxy'. In what world does this blue-on-blue infighting help Kemi Badenoch as she struggles to cut through? Equally infantile was the typically boyish intervention of her former leadership rival Sir James Cleverly with a demand that the Conservatives stick to net zero – despite it being among the main reasons the party is now facing its own climate emergency. He's been invisible for months and then emerges with this sort of unhelpful Ed Milibandesque claptrap? Read the room, for pity's sake. All credit to Robert Jenrick for trying to find some grown-up solutions to some of the country's problems – like fare dodging, notwithstanding the self-serving nature of his attention-grabbing social media endeavours. Badenoch is trying her best to be a serious politician, with thoughtful rather than knee-jerk interventions on issues like our membership of the ECHR – only to have MPs in her ranks like Kit Malthouse spreading anti-Israel slanders like his declaration this week that Gaza is 'an abattoir where starving people are lured out through combat zones to be shot at'. Along with other Tories, he's also been calling for the Prime Minister to recognise a Palestinian state. Harebrained student politics are clearly not just confined to the Labour Party. We had hoped Reform, led by streetwise Nigel Farage, a man of political wisdom and experience, might rise above all this. But even he has been dogged by infantilism. If Rupert Lowe's 'more people watch my X videos than Nigel's' bravado wasn't bad enough, Reform now has been badly damaged by the similarly petulant flouncing out of party chairman Zia Yusuf. I like Zia and think he deserves credit for all the hard work he has put into professionalising the party over the past 11 months. But what on earth was there to be gained from such a public tantrum? Just leave quietly, don't blow the whole thing up with spiteful talk of working to get the party elected 'no longer being a good use of my time'. Similarly juvenile was the language he used to describe Reform MP Sarah Pochin's Commons call to ban the burka (which provoked laughter from the front bench: that's the state of public discourse in this country, folks). Responding to Katie Hopkins, of all people, on X, he wrote: 'Nothing to do with me. Had no idea about the question nor that it wasn't policy. Busy with other stuff. I do think it's dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do.' At the age of 38 and having worked at Goldman Sachs and established his own hugely successful business, he should know this is not the way to behave in the public eye. Reform remains a party that cannot even govern itself, let alone the country. This simply isn't good enough. The Government is useless, the Tories are a busted flush; if Reform seriously wants to break the doom loom of despair then it cannot be part of the problem. The party must get its act together – and fast.
BreakingNews.ie
31 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Man (36) who murdered partner after beating her 'beyond recognition' jailed for at least 19 years
A man who was repeatedly violent to his partner before killing her has been jailed for a minimum of 19 years. Natasha Melendez, aged 32 and formerly from Venezuela, was attacked at her home in Lisburn, Co Antrim, on March 22nd, 2020, and died from her injuries on April 1st of the same year. Advertisement John David Scott (36), with an address listed as Maghaberry Prison, was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Friday having earlier entered a plea of guilty to her murder. The court heard she had been beaten 'beyond recognition' and had died after a 'devastating stroke' which was the result of damage to a major artery supplying blood to her brain. Prior to her death, Ms Melendez had expressed a fear that Scott, the father of one of her four children, would kill her. The sentencing hearing was observed via video link by her mother Maria Mejias in Florida as well as other relatives. Advertisement Mr Justice O'Hara said the murder of Ms Melendez was the end result of Scott's 'repeated violence against her'. Scott also pleaded guilty to the charges of grievous bodily harm with intent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault against Ms Melendez. These charges span a period between December 1st, 2019, and March 2020. The court was told they included an 'exceptionally violent' incident in which Scott threw a vacuum at the victim, and also jumped hard and repeatedly on her prone body while holding on to a headboard, resulting in broken ribs and facial swelling. Advertisement In a separate incident, Scott was said to have attacked Ms Melendez while she was in a car before she got out and escaped to an off-licence. The court heard staff at the premises reported that she asked them not to contact police as she was afraid he would kill her. The judge said: 'Guess what, she turned out to be right.' The prosecution said it was a domestic violence case, involving gratuitous violence with extensive and multiple injuries on a vulnerable victim before her death. Advertisement It said the murder was the accumulation of cruel and violent behaviour over a period of time. The judge said the only mitigating factors he could recognise were 'some signs of remorse' as well as the 'horrible childhood' Scott had endured which led to addiction and mental health problems. However he said personal circumstances carry less weight in murder cases. The judge said he did not regard the case as 'anywhere near the borderline between murder and manslaughter'. Advertisement Mr Justice O'Hara said Ms Melendez was a 'particularly vulnerable young woman', adding that Scott had acknowledged a disparity in their sizes. 'In addition to that, she was a drug addict who he beat up again and again and again until he killed her.' The judge said that while Scott had said he had suffered injuries, there was no evidence that he had been injured by her hands to any degree of note. He said the evidence showed that when he attacked her, he inflicted extensive and multiple injuries on her before the final assault. The judge accepted the murder was not premeditated but added that it was a foreseeable end result of how he had treated her. He said: 'What on earth did he think might happen to her if he beat her up again and again and again and again? 'She begged the staff in the off-licence not to call the police because she was afraid he would kill her, and that is exactly what he did.' The judge said he had received 'exceptionally moving' victim impact statements from Ms Melendez's mother, two of her aunts, and one of her children. He said her mother found it impossible to put into words the 'suffering the cruel murder has caused' and that her grandchildren had struggled to find peace. Ms Melendez's teenage son said he was made fun of and bullied when his mother's murder was reported. He said: 'I will never know if my mum would have been able to get better and I could have spent more time with her. 'I had to start secondary school without my mum knowing, and I think of all the big things in my life she will miss out on. 'I just feel like my life will never be the same without her and every birthday I see as a constant reminder of her.' Reading a pre-sentence report from the probation service, the judge said Scott had expressed that Ms Menendez did not deserve what happened to her and said: 'I genuinely loved her to bits. 'I want forgiveness I need to do right by her. That's why I pleaded guilty. I took her from her family and kids.' In arriving at the length of the sentence, the judge was asked to take note of delays in proceedings due to the 'unusual' impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Scott was initially arrested on March 26th, 2020, but was not interviewed until January 2022. In the middle of that 22-month period, he was also in custody in relation to assault of police officers. In effect, the court heard that he was in custody for the matters relating to Ms Melendez alone for approximately 12.5 months – but the exact time would be worked out at a later stage. Announcing his decision, the judge put a provision that that period would be taken off the sentence – as there would be no administrative way for the prison service to declare that as a period of remand. It was not open to the judge to implement consecutive sentences for the other offences to which Scott pleaded guilty, but he was able to use them as an aggravating factor in arriving at the final tariff. Scott was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 19 years before his release can be considered. The judge said this would be reduced at a later date to account for the time he spent in custody in relation to the matters during the pandemic, when a final determination on the exact number of days had been made.
Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Met police launch murder probe after woman, 46, disappeared in Ilford- as man known to her appears in court
A man has appeared in court after a woman vanished in Ilford amid police launching a murder probe. Yajaira Castro Mendez, 46, was reported missing to the Metropolitan Police last Saturday, May 31. She was last known to have left her home three days prior on the morning of May 29. Today, a man known to the Colombian national appeared in court charged with her murder, as the force continue to appeal for information from the public. Ms Mendez's disappearance was initially treated as a missing persons investigation, but was taken up by a specialist unit yesterday after further enquiries suggested she has come to harm. Her family are currently being supported by specialist officers. Chief Superintendent Jason Stewart, who leads policing in Camden, said: 'Officers have been working around the clock to find Yajaira. 'She has not been seen or heard from by her family or friends since the date she was reported missing. 'Yajaira's disappearance was initially treated as a missing person investigation led by local officers. 'The investigation was then transferred to the Met's Specialist Crime Command on Thursday, 5 June after a range of extensive further enquiries very sadly suggested she has come to harm. 'I understand the impact this news may have on our local community, however we do have a man charged and in custody and we are not searching for anyone else at this stage. The man and Yajaira are believed to be known to each other. 'Detectives continue to investigate the circumstances and there are crime scenes in place across Camden and Lambeth. 'We thank the community for their patience while we carry out our enquiries and ask that any one with information please comes forward.' Anyone with information relating to Ms Mendez's disappearance has been urged to contact the police via 101 or @MetCC quoting CAD 3020/06JUN25. Alternatively you can remain anonymous by calling the independent Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or by visiting
