Conroy Family Fight for Justice

dublin | crime and justice | other press

Wednesday August 16, 2006 15:23

by Tadhg McGrath

dublincentralsf at gmail dot com

28 year-old Celine Conroy from Dublin's North Inner City was brutally killed in Spain in August 2005. Her family wish to be represented at the trial later this year of the man alleged to have been her killer, and under Spanish law, they can be.

However, court costs will amount to €10,000.

Since this is a huge amount for the Conroy family, many people have called for the Department of Foreign Affairs to intervene, and make a grant to the family so that they can be present and fully informed of what is happening at the inquiry into their Celine's death.

However the government has refused, forcing the family to try to raise funds locally, with a major benefit night on the 15th September at the Roayl Dublin Hotel.

The Northside People article below gives some background to the case.

The family of Northside mum Celine Conroy who was beaten to death in Spain last year is appealing for money in their fight for justice. One year after her violent death, Celine’s family is pleading for help to pay for an expensive and difficult legal battle over the coming months.

Celine's mum Sandra is asking anyone who can help to get in touch with the family.
“I need a solicitor to represent Celine and to represent myself,” said Ms Conroy. “I need to know all the details and the ins and outs of what is going on in court.
“This has been like a horror movie for us and the fact that Celine's death is a Spanish investigation and will be a Spanish trial has made it more difficult.

“This is too important for us,” she added. “Celine is too important for us not to be able to see her killer brought to justice.”

The close-knit Conroy family, who live on Sean O'Casey Avenue, face a bill of over e10,000 for a legal representative in Spain.

Ms Conroy told Northside People that she feels partly responsible for Celine's death.
“I found out I had cancer two days before her death,” the heartbroken mother explained. “I didn't tell her even though she was my best friend because I knew she would cut her holiday short and come home immediately.

“If she had known and come home maybe she would be alive today.”
Mum Sandra has battled hard with her daughter's tragic death and intensive chemotherapy treatments over the last year.

“Fighting the cancer has been tough and has meant that I couldn't put more effort and time into fundraising for our legal costs,” she said.
“Having our own representation and interpreter for the trial is so important for us. If we could afford to cover the costs on our own we would.

“It is only thanks to the help of the community that we were able to afford to bury Celine.”

The Conroy family has taken Celine's three children into care.
Eldest son Shane is nine years old, Chloe is six and Leah is just two years of age.
“The two older children are in counselling and had a rough time of it,” grandmother Sandra sobbed.

“The youngest little one is too young to know what has happened. We just can't imagine what they saw the night of their mother's death.”

Celine's uncle David Fitzsimons described the difficult task of identifying his niece's body.
“We are going to do everything we can to make sure she and her children are properly represented in this trial.

“We are appealing to anyone who can help us to make a donation to the fund we set up especially for it.”

Mr Fitzsimons criticised the Irish Government, claiming that they had let the heartbroken family down.
“It is difficult to accept that the Irish Government cannot offer some help to a family whose daughter was killed in Spain,” he said. “Even if they helped pay for accommodation for the family while they attended the trial.”

Mary Lou McDonald MEP is lobbying the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs to help the Conroy family.

“I have written to the Taoiseach's office and the Department of Foreign Affairs on behalf of Ms Conroy, appealing for support, only to be told that help would not be forthcoming,” Deputy McDonald said.

“An urgent intervention is needed if Ms Conroy is to travel to Spain to achieve justice for her daughter.

“The Government could and should make a compassionate donation to the family of Ms Conroy to fight this legal case.”

There will be a charity night held in aid of raising money for the family in the coming weeks.
The Royal Dublin Hotel on O'Connell Street will be the venue for the big bash on September 15.

There will be raffles, gambling, karaoke and a disco held in aid of Celine Conroy with all money raised going towards legal costs.

Tickets will be e10 per head and all are welcome on the night.

Anyone who wants to make a donation can lodge money into Bank of Ireland's account named Celine Conroy's Defence Fund (Account number: 45469339/ Sort code: 900711)

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Comments (9 of 9)

But....

by Fiery S

Wed Aug 16, 2006 16:02

The case will be fought whether or not the family are there. All the €10,000 will pay for is ringside seats for them. I really don't see why the government should pay so much money to fly them to Spain for a few weeks.

DI Coverage

by Good Cause

Wed Aug 16, 2006 16:56

Coverage in Daily Ireland of this case.

http://www.dailyireland.com/home.tvt?_ticket=347DALOLO9...opp=1

Place for the victim's family

by Tadhg

Wed Aug 16, 2006 17:32

The idea that the family are simply asking for a "ringside seat" is rather insulting. Its proper that a victim's family should be present to see justice done.

As far as I know, Spanish Law allows the family of a murder victim to be to be represented at the trial. We have a slightly similiar system in that we allow victim impact reports.

Could you imagine if your child was killed and your were unable to be present at the court inquiry?

Would anyone in Ireland think it proper if the family of, say, Robert Holohan, had not able to be present at the trial of his killer?

Tadgh

by Seb Brio

Wed Aug 16, 2006 17:58

Do you think the State should pay for the family of each Irish person mudered abroad to attend the trials of the accused? What constitutes family? Parents, siblings or extended family, cousins?

Why haven't Sinn Fein introduced legislation in the Dail regarding this?

Victim's families

Thu Aug 17, 2006 18:23

I think the victims of crime and their families should be included in the judicial process, and where possible, yes, I would think the immediate family of a victim should have a role as observers of court inquiries, whether they take place in Ireland or abroad.

I don't see why the state couldn't pay for or at least subsidise this. Perhaps there's an argument about whether such payment should be means tested, but in principle, I would think justice would be better served by having family there.

How about a system whereby two individuals are there to represent the victim's family, and these people's names are put forward by the immediate family (siblings, parents, spouse). They might be cousins, family friends or whatever, but the family should choose them. I presume the Spanish have a system for this, so it would be no harm to look at that.

You ask: Why haven't Sinn Fein introduced legislation in the Dail regarding this?

I'm posting here in an entirely personal capacity, so the short answer is "ask Sinn Féin".

I definitely think it is something worth looking at. At the moment there is no legistlation passing through the Dáil, but in the future let's hope that SF or some other party brings forward proposals to protects the rights of victims and victim's family's in the courts of foreign countries.

tadhg

by wtf

Thu Aug 17, 2006 18:26

Do you realise how much money you are talking about here? How many nurses would that employ?
money can be much much better spent on living people

False argument

Fri Aug 18, 2006 18:24

It's an empty argument to say we can't afford it and we need to spend money on nurses.

At the moment we spend money on make-up for the Taoiseach for his appearances in the Dáil. No one else gets made up for their Dáil appearances, yet the government thinks it's worth spending many thousands on that. How many nurses would that employ?

We also, I seem to remember, spent a fortune on consultants' fees to figure out we couldn't build a national stadium or use electronic voting...

You may also have noticed that since the late 1990's we have a mounted police force in Dublin. We actually bought our police horses from British Police forces who decided they were a waste of money. No one has ever been able to explain what the mounted police are for, assuming they have a function beyond providing photo-opportunities for tourists.

Our current government is notable for the way they spend money on seemingly frivolous things. There are many more examples I could quote.

In this case €7,000 is what the Conroy family need, you'd imagine that the government would be able to find it quite quickly, but they have decided against it, so let's hope the family can raise the money through fundraisers like the one on September 15th.

people on the bandwagon

by jim larkin

Thu Oct 05, 2006 18:50

i think a lot of people are on the bandwagon here,
dont get me wrong celine was a nice girl quite and reserved, f you weren't family.
The bandwagon started with the tabliod media the star and the sundayworld.
what happend celine conroy was tragic and brutal snatched from her life and kids in a evil fashion.
Celine knew who she was living with and the kind of person he is. A DRUGDEALER her family knew who was with for over a decade,
the villa in which they holidayed every year for a number of years
with there kids was bought from the proceeds of heroin dealing in the nth innercity.
during the anti drugs marchs in the area hickey and his father ainscough or gash hickey, would squeal to antidrugs activists who was doing what to save their bacons. celine was very aware what his activites were
for over adecade he sold drugs
as a drugdealer destroying lives in the area with overdoses and family units destroyed no one carrys there cross.
At the end of the day they both lived of this evil trade and enjoyed its rewards sunnyin for three months of the year in the costa del crime.
So it is no surprise that nothing good came out of that villa the proceeds came from evil and misery,
Celines family are also well to do in the area several relatives own pubs and sweet shops in the area and are not stuck for a few quid.
THEY could themselves raise the cash a lot of people in the area think extended family members should do more. there was no big cheaques from them on the night.
This is no slight to celine may she rest in peace.
but the hipocracsy of the media is astonishing if she were alive she would be classed by them as a gangsters moll. i think its sick how they expliot ordinary people to sell papers scumdayworld. and other who jump on the bandwagon.

Has this been resolved?

by Martha Conroy

Sat Jul 19, 2008 06:24

hypnotist46 at juno dot com

I was searching for some Conroy cousins in Ireland and came across the article about Celine Conroy's tragic death. I am wondering if it has been to trial and if donations helped the family get to Spain. I live in the U.S. and would very much like to have contact with this family as we are probably cousins. My email address is hypnotist46@juno.com. Please reply.

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Comments (9 of 9)