The mum-of-three was stabbed to death at her Hazel View home before the house was then set on fire in what was believed to be an attempt to destroy evidence.
A man jailed for the murder of Jennifer Dornan in west Belfast failed today in a legal bid to overturn his conviction.
Court of Appeal judges rejected the challenge mounted by Raymond O’Neill to being found guilty of the mother-of-three’s killing.
Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan ruled: “We are not satisfied that any safety issues arise in relation to the jury’s verdict.”
Ms Dornan, 30, was stabbed to death at her Hazel View home in the Lagmore area back in August 2015.
The house was then set on fire in what was believed to be an attempt to destroy evidence.
O’Neill, 48, was said to have followed the victim back to the house before launching the fatal knife attack in the early hours of the morning.
He denied the killing and claimed that he suffered from memory loss due to being poisoned by prison staff in Dublin.
But in 2022 he received a minimum 22-year jail sentence after being convicted of murder and arson at Belfast Crown Court.
During the trial jurors were shown CCTV footage of Ms Dornan walking home, and a man climbing over a fence to enter the property a short time later.
The prosecution successfully argued O’Neill was that intruder.
Appealing against the murder conviction, defence lawyers disputed the right to introduce evidence mid-trial from a former partner of O’Neill’s nephew who undermined another prosecution witness.
The woman testified that she had been woken by the defendant banging on their door on the morning Ms Dornan died.
She told the jury she then overheard a conversation between the two men which involved Raymond O’Neill confessing he had “killed someone”.
He allegedly added: “It was the drink and drugs that made me do it.”
The woman claimed she came forward after reading a news report of the evidence given by her former partner, stating that she wanted to tell the truth about what she knew.
O’Neill’s legal team contended there had been a legal error in allowing the prosecution to rely on two conflicting accounts.
They described the development as unfair and wrong.
But the Court of Appeal backed opposing submissions that prosecutors were entitled to rely on new testimony from someone who contradicted one of their own witnesses.
Dame Siobhan stressed the objective had been to highlight key factual issues about O’Neill’s conduct in the aftermath of the killing which were central to establishing his guilt or innocence.
“The primary purpose of adducing the evidence was to incriminate the applicant,” she said.
With the woman’s account having cast a shadow over the testimony of another witness who had only told “half the story”, it was determined to have strengthened the case against O’Neill.
“No defendant’s trial is rendered unfair by the adduction of incriminating evidence,” the Lady Chief Justice said.
Sitting with Lord Justice McCloskey and Mr Justice Fowler, she held the decision to allow the woman’s testimony at the trial was unimpeachable.
“We consider it would be offensive to any concept of justice and contrary to common sense… to have excluded the highly material and incriminating evidence on the ground of what was ultimately a purely technical objection having no bearing on the fairness of the trial,” she said.
All other grounds of challenge were also rejected.
Dame Siobhan concluded: “The simple question for this court is whether the applicant’s conviction is safe.
“The appeal is dismissed on its merits for the reasons given.”
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