Irish bus driver pleads guilty in Alsatian buggery death case - Update

A Limerick city bus driver has pleaded guilty to buggery with an animal following the death of a woman in Patrickswell almost four years ago. Sean McDonnell, aged 58, of Churchill Meadows, Raheen appeared before Limerick Circuit Court charged with an offence contrary to section 61 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861.

It is the prosecution case that McDonnell committed the offence using a German Shepherd (Alsatian) dog to commit the act on a 43-year-old woman at a house in Patrickswell on October 7, 2008. The case against McDonnell – believed to be the first of its kind in this country – is related to the sudden death of the women who was from East Limerick on the same date.



Following a garda investigation into her death, McDonnell was charged and first appeared in court in July of last year. As part of the garda investigation, an Alsatian dog was seized and remains under quarantine. A book of evidence was served on the defendant in July of last year and the case was listed for trial this Wednesday.

However, when he was formally arraigned by the court registrar, the defendant said he was “guilty” of the charge. Isobel Kennedy SC requested an adjournment of the case and Judge Carroll Moran remanded the accused on continuing bail until November 2. The defendant faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Previously.