After five hours of deliberations, a jury in Belfast Crown Court on Friday unanimously found him guilty of both murder and arson. As Mrs. Dornan’s friends and family began cheering in the public gallery when the guilt was released, O’Neill showed no emotion. Mrs. Dornan’s mother, Theresa, and Claire’s sister, who attended the eight-week trial every day with other relatives, said: “After seven whole years, we have finally vindicated the beautiful Jennifer.” Despite his allegations of innocence, the court concluded that O’Neill, 47, followed Jennifer Dornan to her home in Hazel View in the early hours of Sunday, August 2, 2015. She was recorded on the closed circuit television of her neighbor walking home with her shoes in hand at 2.53 p.m. on Sunday, August 2, 2015. He had spent the night before spending time in Devenish, before returning to a friend’s house on Lagmore Avenue. O’Neill, who did not know Mrs Dornan before that weekend, was also present. The same camera captured O’Neill – who was then 37 years old and living in a bed on Amcomri Street – holding a jacket over his face as he walked along Hazel View at 3.12am. As soon as she entered her home in Lagmore, O’Neill stabbed the 30-year-old mother of three in the chest three times before setting fire to her bedroom in an attempt to destroy the items. After killing Ms Dornan, O’Neill escaped to Donegal – but was arrested in Bundoran five days after the murder. Following the guilty verdict, the judge, Justice Scoffield, told O’Neill: “Mr O’Neill, you have been convicted of murder and there is only one sentence available by law for me in respect of this offense. “Your sentence will be life imprisonment.” At a hearing that was painful at times, the jury was informed how Mrs. Dornan’s charred remains were discovered in her bedroom. This discovery was made by members of the Fire and Rescue who were called to deal with the blaze. During the two-month trial, witnesses called included a teenage girl who missed coming face to face with O’Neill just minutes after he had killed Ms Dornan. The 13-year-old was staying with her friend at Mrs. Dornan’s house next door, but left her friend and walked along Hazel View at 4.21 a.m. as she was feeling sick and took a taxi home. Just three minutes earlier, CCTV had captured O’Neill leaving Mrs. Dornan’s house and walking toward White Glen, where he threw the kitchen knife he used to kill Mrs. Dornan in the backyard of a house. Other witnesses called to testify were friends who spent the night in Mrs Dornan’s company hours before her murder. A friend of O’Neill also testified and recalled seeing blood on the defendant’s hand after a meeting early in the morning in an alley. The witness said that this meeting took place on Sunday, August 2, and that he and O’Neill then went to his mother’s house where he drank more. During the sixth week of the trial, a new witness appeared after reading a newspaper report on the case. This witness – former partner of O’Neill’s nephew, Shane – testified via a video link and said that in August 2015 she was still with Shane and that around 5 am on Sunday 2 August O’Neill called them and woke them up. The mother of a child from Belfast said Shane opened the door and when O’Neill came in he heard the two men talking in the hall. When asked what he heard, the witness said: “I heard Raymond walk through the door and tell Shane that he had killed someone, and Shane asked what he meant by saying that he had killed someone, why he did that. “Raymond O’Neill’s answer was that it was not him, it was the drink and the drugs that made him do it.” O’Neill – who appeared in court in a wheelchair – also testified and denied that he had killed Ms Dornan. Instead, he claimed that he lost his memory due to a stroke he suffered from poisoning by prison staff in October 2015. This complete memory loss, he claimed, included the weekend of August 1st and 2nd, 2015. O’Neill denied that he “made a spark” at the 30-year-old, said he “certainly was not” his guy and denied that he sexually assaulted and stabbed her and then set fire to her bedroom. When the CCTV of the killer appeared to be walking along Hazel View with his face hidden by his coat, he said that the man in the video was not him. He told jurors: “I was not the one who committed this murder. I had nothing to do with her murder. I was not there.” He also claimed that he did not remember his arrest in the Bundoran – which he attributed again to the poison of the prison. …
