A Belfast doctor has received a life sentence for the murder of his mother.
He has been told he will serve at least eight years in prison before he can be considered for release on licence. The Belfast Doctor, Declan O’Neill, murdered his mother Anne at her parents’ house in October 2017. In September, he was sentenced to life in prison.
A court heard that the accused had been raised “in almost third-world conditions” and in an atmosphere of “intimidation and bullying”. But when explaining the difficulty of sentencing considering the circumstances of the case, the judge said that “All murders are tragic, but there is something particularly troubling about the murder of a mother by a son. It runs against the natural order of things.”
He said that the normal reaction to such a thing is that “something has gone badly wrong”, adding that the murder becomes “stranger when one learns that the defendant is in fact a qualified medical doctor, a profession devoted to the care of others and the protection of life”.
O’Neill is said to have been very remorseful in court on multiple different occasions.
The judge said statements given by the defendant’s sister and grandmother were “unique and compelling” in that both were “extremely supportive of the defendant and a compelling and moving plea for clemency on the defendant’s behalf”.
However, he added that it was “essential to remember that a person had been killed as a result of the defendant’s actions”.
“Anne O’Neill’s death was brutal, senseless and unnecessary,” he said.
“Much has been said about her in the course of these remarks, but nothing that has been said should take away from this fundamental point.”
A pre sentence report assessed the likelihood of O’Neill re offending as being “low” and noted that he presented with a” high level of regret” and is “clearly struggling to come to terms with the consequences of his actions and repeatedly stated how much he missed his mother”.
