Suspended sentence for murder accomplice

A woman who helped a killer by disposing and concealing evidence in the aftermath of him knifing a man to death was handed a suspended prison sentence yesterday.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Nov 2021, 07:59 BST
County Down. Father-of-two Brian Phelan, 33, who was stabbed to death on the Carrivekeeney Road, a few miles outside the cityCounty Down. Father-of-two Brian Phelan, 33, who was stabbed to death on the Carrivekeeney Road, a few miles outside the city
County Down. Father-of-two Brian Phelan, 33, who was stabbed to death on the Carrivekeeney Road, a few miles outside the city

Imposing a two-year jail term on 27-year-old Samantha Collins but suspending it for two years, Judge Gordon Kerr QC said while it was clear she had knowledge that Daniel Carroll had murdered Brian Phelan, “I must have regard to the practical effect of any assistance or withholding”.

With Mr Phelan’s girlfriend Amanda Riordan in court and many other friends and relatives watching proceedings at Newry Crown Court by video-link, Judge Kerr said given the fact the Carroll was arrested less than 90 minutes after he left Collins’ house, “the fact is that I do not think she impeded the proper investigation or the police arrest”.

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He said he also accepted that while it did not amount to a defence of duress, “there was a degree of pressure” on Collins given Carroll’s record and the fact that he had just committed murder, “he is clearly a man well capable of inflicting violence”.

Last week Collins’ defence QC John Orr launched a Rooney application where a judge gives an indication of the likely sentence should a defendant plead guilty, and yesterday Collins, who appeared at court by video-link, entered guilty pleas to assisting an offender on July 26 2018 and withholding information from the day of the murder until February 23 this year.

Following a 10-day trial in September, 30-year-old Carroll was handed a life sentence after a jury unanimously convicted him of the murder of Mr Phelan. For an unknown reason but possibly over a minor debt, Carroll stabbed Mr Phelan five times – three to the neck and two to his chest – at the top of the Carrivekeeney Road in Newry before leaving him to bleed to death in a nearby garden.

Carroll drove to Collins’ home where he changed his blood-soaked T-shirt and washed himself clean. It was that aspect of the brutal murder that brought Collins before the court in that while Carroll was in the bathroom cleaning himself, he “made phone calls, part of which she overheard” but she failed to bring that information to the police.

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Sentencing Collins Judge Kerr said it was “perfectly clear on the evidence that she had pre-knowledge of what he had done while overhearing the phone conversation”.

He said Collins, from Parkview in the Cloghoge area of Newry, committed the offences by allowing Carroll “to use her house” to get changed, adding that while obviously serious and warranting a prison sentence, “she was in fear of Carroll and his family given what she had overheard”.

The case against Carroll, who is waiting to hear what the minimum tariff will be, is due to be reviewed next week.