Cameron Reilly said goodbye to his grandmother on what should have been an ordinary Friday afternoon in May and headed out with friends.
It was the last time she would see him alive.
The DKIT student was looking forward to the day ahead, a trip to Dundalk followed by an evening socialising with a group of friends back in Dunleer.
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There were phone calls exchanged to plan the night ahead, drinks to be purchased, arrangements of who would meet where and when. The field near the Glen Dimplex factory was the venue for an evening of drinking, chat and music followed by the usual trip to the local chippy for some food at the end of the night and then home to bed.
Cameron never made it home that night.
Instead, at some point between 12.40am and 1.40am on May 26, 2018, Aaron Connolly, just two weeks older than his victim, violently attacked his friend and - as prosecuting counsel Dean Kelly SC said in his closing speech - left him “dead or dying in that cold field”.
It was in that same field that David Shiels, out for an early morning walk with his dog just after 8am the following morning, came across what at first appeared to be the outline of a person sleeping.
“I looked up and saw the body. I walked over and said hello, thinking it was someone who was drunk and fell asleep,” he told the trial.
What Mr Shiels had actually stumbled upon was the body of Mr Reilly, his death a result of asphyxia either by a chokehold or external pressure to the front of his neck.
He said the teenager was lying on his back and there was “discolouring and bruising” on the right-hand side of the face, neck and throat. There were “a lot of scrape marks” on the front of the neck and the deceased’s hands were “very white and clean”.
“I knew he was dead,” Mr Shiels said.
A neighbour, Jean Lynch, initiated CPR on Mr Reilly, but his lips were blue, and he was “stone cold”.
Ms Lynch said she observed the deceased’s chin area was “scuffed-looking and red”. She said she checked for a pulse on his neck and his wrist but she did not feel anything. “He was very cold,” she said.
The paramedic who attended the scene, Debbie McCole, said the only injury on the body was neck trauma, with a lot of bruising around the neck.
Aaron Connolly, the last person to see the teenager alive, told gardaí his friend had been in good form when he left him. They had parted ways near the Beechwood housing estate in Dunleer and, Connolly said, he never looked back to see which way Cameron went.
This was the first in what the prosecution characterised as lies told with a “constant, fox-like evolution” the then 18-year-old told investigating gardaí in the days and weeks that followed.
ABSOLUTE BANALITY
During the trial at the Central Criminal Court, which ended with the conviction of Connolly for murder, the jury heard from many of the young people who were present in the field on May 25, 2018. It was a gathering of friends in the loose sense of the word, with floating groups of alliances.
There was drinking on the night and some drug taking too, a fact which initially caused a reluctance on the part of some of those present to come forward and give statements to gardaí.
It was supposed to be an evening of fun, a night, as prosecution counsel said, that should have been notable “only for the absolute banality of the experience”.
Instead, it became a night etched in the memory of all the young people present on that fateful evening for all the wrong reasons. Mr Reilly was found dead in that very same field just hours after he had been drinking with his killer.
Many of Cameron’s friends and acquaintances gave evidence in the case, telling the court the teenager had been in great form on the night.
The court also heard the teenager had confided in some close friends that he was bisexual in the months leading up to his death.
Shannon Carroll told the court she and Cameron Reilly had been close friends for years and said Cameron had been in “brilliant form” and was “happy and jolly” when she saw him on May 25.
She said Cameron had come out to her around two months prior and said he had been bisexual for a while, but she was unaware if he had had any relationships with men.
Erica McGuinness said Cameron had told her he was bisexual and was on Grindr.
Ms McGuinness said the teenager had told her he was just on the site to “suss people out” because there would often be gossip about people locally who were “in the closet”. She said on the night of May 25 Cameron was keen to break away and this was “out of character for him” because he would normally be “the last man standing”.
Asked by Mr Bowman, defending, if there was an understanding that Cameron Reilly was going to meet someone, Ms McGuinness said she had been asked if he was staying in two different houses and had said if that was the case then he “may have been going to meet someone”.
In her evidence to the court, Megan Smith said Cameron Reilly was her best friend.
She told prosecuting counsel Mr Kelly that on the night of May 25 she went to meet Cameron and a group of other friends at the field at around 7.30pm-8pm. She said there were people coming and going throughout the night and they were enjoying themselves having a few drinks and a laugh like they normally did.
There was some drinking “but not too much” and she was aware some people were taking cocaine but she told the court Cameron never took drugs. Ms Smith said later in the evening a group including Cameron and the accused, Aaron Connolly left the field and went to get food at the local takeaway.
She said she left Cameron at the entrance to a local estate and this was the last time she saw him alive.
RUMOURS
During the trial, the jury heard that there was much rumour about Cameron Reilly's murder in the local area.
An anonymous letter, posted to Dunleer Garda Station during the investigation, contained a third-hand account about two people speaking in a pub and a garda decision-making model was used to evaluate its contents.
However, Detective Superintendent John O'Flaherty told Mr Kelly that gardaí only ever had one suspect in the case: Aaron Connolly.
Defence counsel Michael Bowman SC asked Det Supt O’Flaherty to confirm that the letter was written by someone who said they had overheard "a young girl and a young lad" talking in the pub saying that they saw Mr Reilly being killed.
Det Supt O’Flaherty said that the letter was assessed and evaluated and a decision was made not to carry out any further action. CCTV footage from the pub was not obtained.
Mr Bowman also referred to another letter received by the gardaí, in which someone said: "I know they took pictures of his lower parts after he was killed".
Supt O’Flaherty said that there had been so much rumour in the wake of Mr Reilly's death and no action was taken concerning this letter.
AARON CONNOLLY
At the outset of the case, Mr Kelly said two facts were clear: that Cameron Reilly was alive just before 1am and that he subsequently died violently.
He said it was the prosecution’s case that at a point between 12.40am and 1.40am on May 26 Connolly intentionally brought about the death of Cameron Reilly.
He told the jury of seven women and five men it was for them to decide whether or not Aaron Connolly did it.
Only Cameron and his killer knew exactly what passed between them on the night, what precise words were said and what actions were taken, he said.
As the case progressed, many of the blanks and the questions which had remained unanswered were finally addressed.
In his initial statement to gardaí, Connolly said he had been drunk on the night but “knew what I was at”. He told them he remembered most of what happened except for the walk home which was “a bit vague”.
He said he and Mr Reilly parted ways near the Beechwood estate and he never looked back to see which way the teenager went.
However, when CCTV footage from various businesses in the town disproved this version of events, Connolly changed his story, telling investigating officers he couldn’t remember what he was doing for the “missing hour” between 12.40am and 1.40am because he had taken a combination of drugs that made him “black out”.
Evidence was heard from Garda Sgt Paul Sweeney, based at Drogheda Garda Station in 2018, who told how, when the missing hour was put to Connolly, he first said he "went to get a bag of weed" but that the person he got it from “would probably deny it”.
Asked why he hadn’t told gardaí this before Connolly said: "I didn’t want to say I was smoking weed."
Connolly claimed that he used a friend's phone to text this person at 7pm on May 25 and asked him to meet at 1am. However, when the statement of another man was read to the accused in the garda station, Connolly replied: "Obviously he’s not going to say he’s a drug dealer, he’s gone into denial."
Connolly told gardaí he didn’t know what he had been doing for the missing hour but emphatically denied killing his friend. "I know I didn’t kill him," he said. "I’d know if I killed someone."
The accused said drugs were the reason he couldn’t recall what happened during the last minutes of Cameron Reilly’s life: "That hour that I’m missing, I can’t remember what I was doing. The reason I don’t remember is I was taking drugs."
He told gardaí he had taken two grammes of cocaine and half a gramme of MDMA and said this would sometimes cause him to “black out”.
"I blacked out after I left Cameron, I told you everything I know. I’d know if I killed someone,” he said.
Sgt Sweeney said Connolly initially offered no explanation as to why his DNA was found on the neck of Mr Reilly, but the accused later said that Mr Reilly was taller than him so he had to reach up and pull him down for the purpose of a group photograph that was taken.
Sgt Sweeney told the trial that when gardaí put it to Connolly that his DNA was found on Mr Reilly's penis, he told them: "It must be wrong." Connolly did not accept that it was his DNA and said that the forensic report was wrong.
Sgt Sweeney said that Mr Connolly denied fighting with Mr Reilly and also denied touching his penis or putting his penis into his mouth.
However, just two days before closing speeches were delivered in the case, the accused admitted, through his lawyers, that he had given Mr Reilly oral sex on the night he died.
Counsel for the defence, Michael Bowman SC made a proof by formal admission to the court on behalf of the 23-year-old.
Mr Bowman said that there had been sexual contact between Mr Connolly and Mr Reilly on the night of the murder, with Mr Connolly pulling down Mr Reilly's tracksuit bottoms and placing his penis in his mouth. Mr Bowman said that Mr Connolly placed his arms around Mr Reilly's waist when he did this.
He said that Aaron Connolly performed oral sex on Cameron Reilly and when he left, Mr Reilly was still alive and standing up.
Connolly had denied that anything sexual happened between him and Mr Reilly and told gardaí that he was "straight".
While both the prosecution and the defence acknowledged that under normal circumstances a person’s sexuality or sexual preferences would be nobody else's business, prosecuting counsel contended it was in the context of the lies Aaron Connolly told about his interactions with Cameron Reilly on the night of the murder that this became relevant.
On the same day that the proof by formal admission was made, forensic scientist Doctor Clara Boland provided key evidence to the court.
She told the jury an immunological test on a penile swab of Mr Reilly revealed human saliva that was a mixture of two people, the major sample being Mr Reilly's own and the minor being an incomplete profile that matched Mr Connolly's DNA.
Dr Boland also told the court that DNA profiling on Mr Reilly's neck showed a mixed DNA sample of two people, the major sample being Mr Reilly's own and a minor incomplete sample that matched Mr Connolly's DNA.
She said that an examination of the inside front of the tracksuit bottoms worn by Mr Connolly showed a mixed DNA sample of Mr Reilly and Mr Connolly. The witness also said that the DNA of Mr Reilly and Mr Connolly was present on the hooded top and outer tracksuit bottoms of Mr Connolly.
The trial also heard from Jack Conway, a young man who told the jury he had had sexual relations with Aaron Connolly on at least 20 separate occasions when they were teenagers but that Connolly told people he was straight.
Mr Conway told the jury he had cousins in Dunleer and through them he was friends with a number of people in the town.
He said he and Aaron Connolly had a sexual encounter at Halloween when they were both 15. Mr Conway said they had been staying at a relatives house and sharing a single bed. Mr Conway said the pair engaged in oral sex and this was initiated by Aaron Connolly.
The young man said he and Mr Connolly were again intimate when they met in a field “a while after”. Asked by Mr Kelly if they kissed, Mr Conway said no, “because he [Aaron Connolly] didn’t like kissing”.
The pair went on to have about 20 sexual encounters subsequently, Mr Conway told the court, but Connolly would tell people he was straight.
Mr Bowman put it to the witness that on the spectrum of sexual orientation, people can fall into different ranges, with some people identifying as gay, straight, bi, gender fluid or pansexual, while some people identify as straight but have sexual experiences with men, to which Mr Conway agreed.
“Your evidence is you had sexual intimacy with Aaron Connolly at some stage?” Mr Bowman asked, to which Mr Conway said yes. "You understood him to identify as being straight?” "Yes," Mr Conway replied.
Asked by Mr Kelly if Aaron Connolly had told him he was straight or gay, Mr Conway said: “I think he told me he was bisexual.”
A CHOKEHOLD
The trial heard evidence from Chief State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan, who outlined the injuries she found on Mr Reilly’s neck.
There were a number of external injuries in the form of abrasions and bruising as well as deep bruising around the neck and the hyoid bone, a small bone located in the upper part of the neck, she said.
“All of these features are in keeping with the application of external pressure on the neck. This was the cause of death,” the pathologist told the court.
Outlining her findings from the postmortem, Dr Mulligan said pinpoint haemorrhages were evident in the membranes on the inside of the eyelids and these were more prominent on the left eye. She said the cause of death was asphyxia due to external pressure on the neck with no other contributing factors.
There were no obvious ligature marks or circular bruises identified, Dr Mulligan said, and the injuries sustained were more in keeping with a chokehold or the application of a rough surface implement to the neck.
The pathologist said there was no evidence of any defence type injuries. She said there were bruises evident on the shoulder, head and lip which may have been conducive with a struggle.
Dr Mulligan also found no indication of an overtly sexual component in the death.
She said the alcohol was being actively metabolised at the time of death. This suggested Mr Reilly had been drinking relatively recently but had probably stopped drinking in the hour or two before his death.
STRATEGIC LIES
The trial heard lies were the central issue to the case against the accused.
In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Kelly said Connolly lied with “precise details”, all of which were “invented in the mind of a man weaving a story to defend his own interests”.
The skilful unravelling of the lies told by Connolly was what ultimately led to his conviction.
In his closing statement, defence counsel Mr Bowman said the prosecution had gone “all in on the lies”. He pointed out that many of the young people on the night had lied for one reason or another.
“Strategic lies” were told by several young people who were there on the night, he said, adding people had lied about drug and alcohol use in a murder trial because they were afraid.
“Strategic lies are being told. I’m going to ask you to juxtapose them to show that in circumstances like that telling the truth can be difficult,” Mr Bowman said.
“The defendant was 18, in a garda station, locked in a cell when he’s not being interviewed by gardaí.”
“The law says the mere fact that the defendant lies is not evidence enough. They may lie out of panic and confusion; they may lie because they’re afraid for all sorts of reasons.”
However, Mr Kelly contended Aaron Connolly had lied from the beginning of the investigation to the end, not because he had experimented sexually with Cameron Reilly or because he had been smoking weed on the night.
Mr Connolly lied, counsel said, because “he murdered his friend Cameron Reilly in that field”.
He said everything Aaron Connolly had said, from the moment he and Cameron Reilly left the rest of the group, was “self-serving nonsense”. “He has lied from the beginning of this investigation to the end. Top to bottom, back to front, it’s lies,” Mr Kelly said.
The “constant fox-like evolution” of the lies told by Connolly rebutted the suggestion that a young person might lie to protect his personal sexual preferences, counsel added.
“There is artfulness and care in the way Mr Connolly lies, there’s rich detail in it," he said, adding the detail of that rebuts and "absolutely destroys" the suggestion that these are lies told for an "honest or understandable reason".
“These are lies told by a murderer to protect a murderer,” Mr Kelly told the jury.
He said the accused had made a formal admission on Wednesday that he gave oral sex to Mr Reilly. Those admissions were “skeletal” and “bereft of any detail whatsoever”, counsel added.
“Finally the penny has dropped that detail is not his friend, that detail has never been his friend. That’s ultimately how you catch a liar; in the detail.”
He contended that “rationality, reason and intelligence” permitted only one verdict in the case and that was guilty of murder.
The jury ultimately agreed with him, convicting Connolly by a unanimous verdict.
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