A 54-year-old man has been jailed for life for the murder of a Clare taxi driver.

Liam Molony, a father-of-four, was found hacked to death with his trouser pockets pulled outwards inside the gates of an abandoned private estate in February 2005.

He received 17 blows to the head with either a hatchet or meat-cleaver and his throat was slit from side-to-side.

Anthony Kelly, a native of Ruan, Co. Clare, with an address at Emlagh Na Muck, Emlagh More, Waterville, Killarney, Co Kerry, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Liam Molony (56), outside the village of Ruan, Co. Clare, on February 11, 2005.

Disorder

The defence admitted the killing but claimed Kelly was suffering from a mental disorder at the time.

If the jury accepted this, they would have had to find him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. But the jury took just over four hours to reach their unanimous murder verdict.

Kelly had already pleaded guilty to six other charges, including robbing items belonging to the deceased, setting fire to his car and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Mr Justice Paul Carney, in the Central Criminal Court, imposed the mandatory life sentence on Kelly and backdated the sentence to February 25, 2005.

He adjourned sentencing on the other offences until May 21.

Speaking after the verdict, the victim's brother, Derry Molony, said: "We have strong reservations about the new Criminal Law (Insanity) Act, because when you carry out an atrocity like this, and you can carry it on for 27 months in the premeditation that was here…. We can't understand how it got to this stage.

"This was murder with a motive of robbery.  And that's it," he said.

During the trial, the court heard how Kelly claimed to have heard voices urging him to kill Mr. Molony, whom he had met through a mutual friend some months before the murder.

Kelly claimed the victim had been making racist remarks which upset him because his wife was from South Africa.

But two witnesses gave evidence that Mr. Molony had never make any such remarks.