Husband who reported wife missing when he knew she was dead is jailed

Murdered grandmother Patricia O'Connor's husband Augustine, who pleaded guilty to reporting her missing when he knew she was dead, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Sentencing him today Mr Justice Paul McDermott at the Central Criminal Court said it was "appalling" that on hearing his wife had been murdered by Kieran Greene in his home O'Connor suggested calling emergency services but when that was rejected did nothing about it and went to bed.

His actions in later reporting his wife as a missing person knowing she had been murdered was a betrayal of his wife and his son, he said.

The 76-year-old from Mill Close Glasheen, Stamullen, Co Meath pleaded guilty to the impeding the apprehension or prosecution of his wife's murderer just before his trial was due to begin.

The judge set a headline sentence of three years but took into account O'Connor's late plea of guilty, expression of remorse, that he has led a blameless life up to this and has no previous convictions. He therefore fixed a sentence of 18 months.

The sentencing hearing in relation to three other people convicted of impeding the apprehension or prosecution of Kieran Greene is continuing.

Kieran Greene, (35) was sentenced to life earlier this week for murdering the retired grandmother in the bathroom of her home.

The family of "kind and loving" grandmother Patricia O'Connor believe no sentence could ever be enough for those who helped to cover up her murder.

Wearing flowers to symbolize their loss and Ms O'Connor's love of gardening, family and friends of the deceased today (Friday) gathered outside the Criminal Courts of Justice building. Her her son Richard thanked the gardai, Director of Public Prosecutions, the jury, defence forces and everyone involved in gaining guilty verdicts for those involved in his mother's murder and the subsequent cover-up. He also thanked the people who found his mother's remains scattered at different locations in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains and reported what they had seen to gardai.

He said: "My mam was a kind and loving person, a mother, a sister and a grandmother, who had many years left to live that were so cruelly taken from her.

The sentences given today, we feel is not enough but no length of time is long enough for the crimes they have committed. May they live with this on their consciences for the rest of their lives."

Asking for privacy, Mr O'Connor said the family will try to heal the pain.

Richard O'Connor's father Augustine 'Gus' O'Connor (76), his sister Louise O'Connor (41) and niece Stephanie O'Connor (22) were each sentenced today for their parts in covering up his mother's murder. Louise's former partner Kieran Greene (35) was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this week for her murder while Keith Johnston, who is father to two of Louise's five children including Stephanie O'Connor, was jailed for buying tools that were used to dismember the body as part of the bid to cover up what had happened.