'I will never forgive them': Quilligan family in court as his murderers handed life sentences
Members of the Garda divisional crime scene investigation unit at the search site for Kieran Quilligan at Courtstown Industrial Estate, Little Island, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan
The murderers of 47-year-old Kieran Quilligan started life sentences today as the victim’s parents described them as monsters who had shown no remorse and who would never be forgiven.
Mr Quilligan was beaten and hammered to death, thrown into the boot of a car to be taken from Cork city to a remote place in East Cork where his remains were left hidden, Detective Garda Anne O’Sullivan said today as 28-year-old Luke Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock, Cork, and 33-year-old Niall Long, formerly of St. Michael’s Close, Mahon, Cork, got life sentences for murder.
Stephen Quilligan, father of the deceased, said today at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, “For the last three weeks, we have sat in this court listening to horror stories about my son and the two monsters who didn't show one bit of remorse throughout this trial for what they did.”
Catherine O’Flynn, mother of the deceased, said, in a statement read on her behalf by Detective Garda Sharon Sweeney, “Niall Long and Luke Taylor took my son, who will miss family Christmases, birthdays and every other family event. I will never forgive them for what they have put our family through.”
The murder victims longtime partner, Colette O’Driscoll, said in her statement, “I miss my best friend every day. I feel lonely and lost without him. Kieran was a good man, a good friend and a good partner. Kieran was adored by his family and he will be missed forever and always.”
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford said, as she imposed the mandatory period of life imprisonment on both men, “It was a case where Kieran Quilligan was taken in the most egregious circumstances. I have heard moving victim impact statements from his father and his mother and his longterm partner.
“This was a case where gardaí conducted themselves in a most exemplary fashion. The perpetrators might never have been identified but for the huge work carried out by An Garda Síochána.
“I have been hugely impressed by the manner in which the family (of Mr Quilligan) conducted themselves throughout the trial and I am very sorry for their loss.”
Ray Boland senior counsel for Long, and Brendan Grehan senior counsel for Taylor, said little at the sentencing hearing except that they had both been instructed by their clients to appeal.
Detective Garda Anne O’Sullivan outlined the background to the murder today. The motive for the murder was a drug deal that went wrong and which saw the deceased and another man rob the dealer, Niall Long, of a few hundred euro worth of drugs and a few hundred in cash.
On the morning of September 1 2023 at around 9pm Luke Taylor walked through town with Kieran Quilligan and lured him to a laneway beside St. Fin Barre’s cathedral. Invisible to the victim was Niall Long and his car which had been reversed into the top of the lane around a bend at the top.
He was beaten and thrown into the boot of the car. Within twenty minutes the two murderers and their victim were in East Cork where Mr Quilligan’s body was dumped. They returned in the early hours of September 4 and moved the body to an even more remote spot.
An extensive search with the help of a cadaver dog located the remains four months later. Long and Taylor were charged with murder.
Dr Margaret Bolster, assistant pathologist went with gardaí to where the remains were found in an area known as Whitewell on January 29 2024. The skeletal remains were found in a jute bag in a ravine at the side of a road, partly covered by mud and vegetation. The first thing she saw was the pelvic bone protruding and she said, “the skull was totally separated from the body.”
Referring to a femur fracture she found “a circular indentation, suggestive of a blow from a blunt weapon like a hammer.”
Later the pathologist referred to other “circular injuries, strongly suggestive of hammer blows.” Blood traces in the boot of the Toyota Rav 4, driven by Niall Long, which were later found to be a match for the DNA of Kieran Quilligan. Long was seen on CCTV spending some two hours washing this car outside his house.
In a text to his mother, Niall Long said, “the fella that robbed me and (caused) that cut on my neck got a hiding and was thrown in the boot after. So the boot was cleaned.”
This text was mentioned in today’s summary of the case by Det. Garda O’Sullivan.
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