My son's killers are 'monsters'

THE father of a man whose skeletal remains were found in a jute bag in scrubland has thanked gardai for bringing his son home for burial after he was murdered by two men whom he referred to as “monsters”.

- BY OLIVIA KELLEHER

A jury of 10 men and two woman at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork found Luke Taylor, 28, and Niall Long, 33, guilty of the murder of Kieran Quilligan last week following a three-week trial.

Mr Quilligan, 47, was missing for five months before his remains were found in a ravine at Whitewell, Rostellan, Co Cork, on January 29, 2024.

He had suffered 19 broken bones after being attacked with fists and a hammer-like object.

Gardai had brought a PSNI cadaver dog to an area of interest to the investigation where they discovered the remains in a one-tonne gravel bag.

At the start of the sentencing hearing yesterday, the coordinator of the Garda investigation, Det Garda Ann O'Sullivan of the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork, said that the two men subjected Mr Quilligan to a “significant and sustained assault” on September 1, 2023.

Stephen Quilligan, father of the late Kieran, told the hearing that the two perpetrators would never be forgiven for what they had done.