Teen murderer who posted Snapchat video of victim had 'unhealthy interest' in men who 'pedal extreme beliefs'
Lorna Woodnutt's family had previously described the sledgehammer attack as a 'public execution, hosted on social media by her murderer'
A High Court judge has described a teenage murderer's actions in posting a video of his 51-year-old victim to Snapchat as "sickening" and noted that the boy had an "unhealthy interest" in well-known male role models who “pedal extreme beliefs” which had shaped his thinking and encouraged a negative attitude towards women.
Lorna Woodnutt's family had previously described the sledgehammer attack as a "public execution, hosted on social media by her murderer". "Evil entered the sanctity of our family that day," they told the Central Criminal Court.
The court heard at the child's sentencing hearing last July that the boy, who is under 18 and cannot be named under the Children's Act, had sent a blood-splattered selfie with the victim's faceless body.
READ MORE: Boy sentenced to life in detention over Offaly hammer murder of woman he posted on Snapchat
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Sentencing the teenage boy to life in detention with a review after 15 years, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said today that "defenceless" Ms Woodnutt had suffered "a cowardly, brutal and sustained assault", which the then 16-year-old teen had carried out with an “extraordinary level of brutality and viciousness”. He added that the killing was carried out without mercy, inflicting maximum terror and suffering.
The judge said the attack, which had "an element of planning", was not "a spontaneous eruption of violence" but "conceived and executed with deliberate intent". He said the posting of the “sickening” video afterwards showed complete disrespect to the victim.
Referring to the boy's probation report, Mr Justice McDermott said it had expressed a concern that the teenager had an "unhealthy interest" in well known male role models who “pedal extreme beliefs and values”. He commented that this had an effect in shaping the boy’s thinking and encouraged a negative attitude towards women.
Mr Justice McDermott stressed to the court that the boy’s release after his review would depend on his progress and the level of danger he posed to others. The victim's niece previously told the court how she discovered her aunt had been brutally murdered when she received content that she described "as something a terrorist would create".
The boy told detectives he recorded and shared the video on Snapchat with "everyone in his contacts, which the court heard was "a three figure number", so that officers "would come". Those individuals had access to the video for thirty minutes but the teenager took it down when gardai arrived, the court was told.
The court also heard during the sentence hearing that the now 17-year-old defendant, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at 18 months old and there had been an increase in his aggressive and oppositional behavioural issues towards staff and students in his school in the weeks leading up to the killing.
A psychiatrist had also diagnosed the teenager with an adjustment disorder but pointed out that the defendant was too young to be diagnosed with other mental disorders.
Referring to the diagnosis today, Mr Justice McDermott said that the exact connection between the defendant's conditions and the attack was not clear. He noted the boy had demonstrated increasingly challenging and deteriorating behaviour, including by becoming verbally aggressive with women and threatening to set a female student alight.
Laboratory technician Ms Woodnutt suffered fatal blunt force injuries to the head, face and chest in the attack. A postmortem report revealed that Ms Woodnutt's facial features were absent, with a defect in the face exposing the skull "without any extracranial content present". There was a loss of the anterior facial skin and soft tissue from the forehead to below the chin.
A probation report submitted to the court indicated that the boy had taken responsibility for the killing but showed little emotion. The teenager's defence barrister, James Dwyer SC, had told the court that this was due to the boy's condition rather than a “callous lack of victim awareness”.
The probation report found the defendant 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.
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. Mr Justice McDermott ordered that a probation report and an updated psychiatric assessment be provided to the court every two years. He extended his sympathies to Ms Woodnutt's family and friends.
The boy appeared at the court last July for his sentence hearing having pleaded guilty to murdering Lorna Woodnutt, aged 51, at a property in a rural area outside Tullamore, Co Offaly on September 29, 2023. The sentencing hearing was also told that another boy had described opening the Snapchat video in his statement to gardai, which was posted by the defendant at lunchtime that day.
The court was told that the boy saw a body in the video with "feet up on a couch and a face with a big hole". A sledgehammer and a lump hammer were beside the victim's body in the video. The defendant had also sent this boy "a selfie" with Ms Woodnutt's body in the background and a caption.
The defendant called 999 on two occasions after he murdered Ms Woodnutt and gardai also received a phone call arising out of the video posted online. When the garda asked the defendant who else was with him, he nodded in the direction of the kitchen saying: "Her, I did it'.
The defendant also told officers: "I hit her as hard as I could, 20 to 30 times, I normally wouldn't do this kind of thing, it isn't me". The boy said he "came at" Ms Woodnutt with a hammer and had "overpowered" her. He said he could see she was still breathing on the ground so "kept going until she stopped". He also said he had put the video on Snapchat as he knew gardai wouldn't want "me to do that".
An analysis of the boy's phone revealed Google searches about hammer attacks such as "what if your hit on the back of the head with a hammer", the garda’s ability to track phones, "how long is life imprisonment in prison" and searches about the behaviour of psychopaths such as "why does sociopaths bite their lips", [sic] the court was told.
The boy's phone was examined and there was evidence that the TOR internet browser had been used. TOR is designed to facilitate anonymous access to the internet.
In an emotional victim impact statement read to the court last July, the deceased's niece Jessica Woodnutt said she discovered that her auntie had been brutally murdered when she received a video "with content that I can only describe as something a terrorist would create".
The now 20-year-old added: "My legs turned to jelly. I was home alone.... I could not watch the entire video and only clicked into it to find out it was actually Lorna who had been murdered, hoping that it was some sort of mix up. Her head was destroyed and her beautiful face was no longer there. Instead, at her shoulders was a pool of blood. I was immediately distraught and entered a state of denial".
"I phoned the local garda station and asked that they check on my auntie... I feared this video was being mindlessly shared on social media as my auntie lay lifelessly at her home without help. The guards could not tell me much over the phone but just said that they were looking into something at this time but could not reveal details. This was enough to confirm to me that I was in fact living in what could only be described as my worst nightmare".
A statement on behalf of the Woodnutt family said that they had walked into a garda station on September 29 "oblivious to our sister's public execution, which was hosted on social media by her murderer". "Evil entered the sanctity of our family that day...it is unbearable and we cannot see beyond it".
The statement continued: "Lorna loved life, she loved people and was loved by people. Let Lorna not be defined by the grotesque way she was murdered."
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