A WOMAN has been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of her partner’s four-year-old son, who was described as a “loving, caring, clever little child”.
Attempts had been made previously to silence the media from identifying Tegan McGhee in court reports, but reporting restrictions were finally lifted following her sentencing last week.
Shortly after the Limerick Post went to print last week, Ms McGhee (32) was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her four-year-old Mason O’Connell Conway.
For the past few years, media outlets were constrained in identifying McGhee after she initially pleaded not guilty to taking young Mason’s life in March 2021.
McGhee, of no fixed abode, only changed her plea to guilty after medical evidence detailing Mason’s multitude of injuries was heard at her trial in November.
Mason’s father, John Paul O’Connell (36), of Liscreagh Murroe, County Limerick, is serving a seven-year jail sentence for assisting McGhee, child neglect, and endangerment of a child.
Restrictions around reporting McGhee and O’Connell’s names were ultimately lifted following a successful court application by RTÉ and the Irish Independent (Mediahuis) to lift a court order set in place at Limerick District Court, despite the fact that McGhee and JP O’Connell’s legal representatives did not seek reporting restrictions when the couple were initially charged in court and identified.
The judge who sentenced McGhee to life in prison, Mr Justice Paul McDermott, said the case had involved the continuing abuse and isolation of innocent Mason.
The trial heard the boy was taken to hospital on March 13, 2021, after his father told emergency services he had fallen from a bunk bed.
It later transpired that O’Connell had been at work that morning but returned home after receiving a number of messages and calls from McGhee, who had been Googling terms such as “concussion” and “why is it bad if you bang your head and go to sleep”.
When checked by doctors in hospital, Mason was found covered in bruises inflicted over different periods of time, the court heard.
He was suffering from a broken rib, a torn liver, and a catastrophic brain injury.
The trial was told the type of injuries Mason sustained were akin to those caused by a car crash or a fall from a height.
None of the bruising looked normal or accidental, the court heard.
The court heard that Mason’s life support was turned off three days after he was brought to hospital.
Mason had been living with his father and McGhee for a number of months as his mother, Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Conway, was experiencing personal struggles.
Mr Justice McDermott said the nature of the abuse of a very small boy was “continuous” and shocking.
He said Mason was isolated and kept out of sight and out of contact from other family members. The boy was persistently “grounded” to his room and forced to sit on the floor, hidden upstairs while family events, including birthday parties, took place downstairs.
The judge said it must have been very frightening and bewildering for Mason. He said there was evidence McGhee was not coping, but also that she continued to dole out abuse, physical punishment, and sanctions, which must have caused “huge distress” and “fear” for the boy.
McGhee had also continually tried to deceive emergency services and relations, the judge said.
Outside court, Mason’s mother was able to speak publicly for the first time since the legal proceedings began, allowing her for the first time to be able to speak her son’s name and share her grief in the open, on account of previous reporting restrictions.
Ms Conway said it was a bittersweet day and although the family got justice, nothing would ever bring Mason back.
She described Mason as a “loving, caring, clever little child” who brought so much love and happiness into their lives.
“He had the biggest brown eyes, and a smile from ear to ear. He was a typical four-year-old little boy who loved cars, bikes, school, playing with his siblings and friends and being at his nanny’s house,” said Ms Conway on the steps of the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin.
She said she had never heard “so much evil” in all her life as when she listened to the evidence against Tegan McGhee in court.
– Court Reporting Scheme