Boy sentenced to life in detention over Woodnutt murder

A teenager who killed a woman last year and posted a video of the murder on Snapchat has been given a sentence of life in detention with a review after 15 years.

The boy was 16 years old when he murdered 51-year-old Lorna Woodnutt at her home in Co Offaly on 29 September 2023.

He cannot be named as he is under 18.

Sentencing the boy, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the attack was a cowardly, brutal and sustained assault with an extraordinary level of brutality and viciousness.

He said the boy's release after his review would depend on his progress and the level of danger he posed to others.

At a sentencing hearing earlier this year, the court heard that another teenager received a video from the boy on snapchat shortly after midday on 29 September.

The 17 second video showed a body with very serious facial injuries as well as a hammer and a lump hammer nearby. The other teenager rang his father, who alerted gardaí.

The court heard the boy himself had rung gardaí twice and he said he posted the video on Snapchat to alert them to what he had done. More than 100 people had access to it before he took it down.

He admitted to gardaí that he attacked Ms Woodnutt with a sledgehammer, lump hammer and knife.

A post-mortem examination showed she died from blunt force trauma to the head and chest.

She had sustained severe facial injuries and had been mutilated. She also had defensive injuries on the back of her hands and forearms.

The court heard the boy had a long-standing diagnosis of autism dating back to when he was 18 months old.

A psychiatrist also diagnosed him with an adjustment disorder, but said he was too young to diagnose him with other mental disorders.

Mr Justice McDermott said the exact connection between his conditions and what he had done was not clear.

He had been showing increasingly challenging and deteriorating behaviour at home and at school, including becoming verbally aggressive towards women and threatening to set a female student alight.

The day before the killing he had been researching psychopathy, the court heard, and on the day of the killing he had been researching "how to knock someone out with a hammer" and whether a 16-year-old could be educated in jail.

He told gardaí he snapped and that the attack was out of character.

In a probation report furnished to the court he took responsibility for the killing but showed little emotion.

However, his defence counsel, James Dwyer said this was as a result of his condition rather than a "callous lack of victim awareness".

The report found he was at very high risk of reoffending because of the extreme violence he used, his inability to recognise and regulate emotions and his inability to articulate accountability or responsibility even though he knew what he had done was wrong.

Mr Justice McDermott also noted that the report expressed a concern that the boy had an "unhealthy interest" in a number of well-known male role models who "peddle extreme beliefs and values" and that this had an effect in shaping the boy’s thinking.

This thinking indicated one could do things regardless of rules or how other people were affected, the judge said, and encouraged a negative attitude towards women.

In victim impact statements given to the court in July, Ms Woodnutt’s family described her murder as a "public execution" hosted on social media.

Her niece received the video and said she could only describe it as something a terrorist would create.

The judge said it was a brutal, savage, prolonged attack on a defenceless woman, with an intention to kill.

He said it was carried out without mercy, inflicting maximum terror and suffering.

Mr Justice McDermott said there was an element of planning - it was not a spontaneous eruption of violence he said but conceived and executed with deliberate intent.

He also described the boy’s actions as cowardly as it was carried out even in the face of pleas to stop, and he said the posting of the "sickening" video afterwards showed complete disrespect.

The manner of Ms Woodnutt’s death and the appalling suffering endured by her had devastating consequences for her family, the judge said.

He said the seriousness of the case reduced his scope for sentencing, and even though the legislation governing children who commit crimes says custodial sentences should be as short as possible, a lengthy sentence was inevitable in this case.

The judge said the boy knew right from wrong and fully understood what he was doing. He was not a very young teenager and his moral compass was well established.

In mitigation, Judge McDermott said the court had to take into account the boy’s age and condition as well as his guilty plea which ensured the family would not have to go through the "deep trauma" of a trial.

He imposed a sentence of detention for life with a review after 15 years. He will be transferred to an adult prison as soon as he reached 18 years old.

The judge said the boy has the prospect of being released in 2038 but that would depend on his progress in his education and in addressing his offending and his behaviour.

He said the level of danger he poses to others would also be considered at that time.

Judge McDermott ordered that a probation report and an up to date psychiatric assessment be furnished to the court every two years before expressing his sympathy to the family and friends of Ms Woodnutt.