A Co Clare father of 2 has been jailed for life for strangling a 43-year-old woman whose body was found washed up on a beach 2 years ago.

Yesterday evening, a jury at the Central Criminal Court found Colm Deely (41) of School Road, Ballyvaughan, guilty of murdering Deirdre McCarthy in Co. Clare on or about the 28th of March 2011.

She was last seen when a friend dropped her home after a Sunday night out in Logues pub in Ballyvaughan.

Among those gathered in the bar was Colm Deely, whom she knew.

The B&B worker was reported missing when she did not show up to babysit a friend’s child on Monday.

There was an extensive garda search and her body was found on Fanore Beach where it washed up days after her disappearance.

In victim impact evidence Deirdre’s sister Helen Geoghegan told the court that when Colm Deely was asked if he knew of Dee’s whereabouts ‘he just stood there and blatantly said no’.

She spoke in court of the violence of her sister’s death and the family’s complete and utter devastation on the morning Dee’s body was found as their ‘worst fears were confirmed’ and they knew ‘she was never coming home’.

Colm Deely was found guilty of murdering Deirdre McCarthy yesterday evening.

It appears he does not fully accept the verdict as his barrister Martin Giblin SC, said his client wished it to be known that while he has been ‘judged by a jury in legal terms, he intended no harm in a layman’s sense of that word’.

Mr Giblin apologised to all concerned on behalf of Colm Deely who he said has hopes that ‘someday his apology might be accepted’.

Mr Justice Barry White has imposed the mandatory life sentence for murder on the father of 2.