Life Sentence For 2009 Wicklow Murder Accused

A 27-year-old man has received a life sentence for the murder of a father-of-three in Co Wicklow in 2009.

Michael Dickenson pleaded not guilty to murdering Steven O’Meara at Ballydonnell Wood, Red Cross, Co Wicklow, on or about August 6th, 2009.

However yesterday a Central Criminal Court jury found him guilty of murder by majority verdict after almost six hours of deliberation.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed a mandatory life sentence on Dickenson and backdated it to December 2009 for time spent in custody.

The victim, 26-year-old Steven O’Meara from Rosehill in Wicklow town, was last seen on August 6th until his body was found by gardaí in a shallow grave in the woods five months later, on Christmas Eve.

It was the prosecution’s case Dickenson was part of a joint enterprise or common design to murder Mr O’Meara after driving him to the remote woods, where he was shot by another man, and that he helped drag the body into a shallow grave.

Dickenson admitted driving the victim to the woods and witnessing the murder but insisted he did not know Mr O’Meara was going to be shot.

(H)