John Tighe to remain in prison for murdering infant son after appeal is rejected

John Tighe will remain in prison serving a life sentence following the dismissal of his appeal against conviction for the murder of his infant son. Tighe, from Lavallyroe in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, was found guilty by unanimous jury verdict at the Central Criminal Court in March 2018 of murdering six-and-a-half-month-old Joshua in June 2013. The child died from asphyxiation caused by a wad of tissue lodged in his throat. The Court of Appeal rejected Tighe's challenge to the trial judge's decision to admit extracts from a postmortem report prepared by a pathologist who was unavailable to attend trial for cross-examination. Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy ruled that the report constituted a factual record within proper legal bounds and that no unfairness resulted from its admission, particularly as expert evidence based on those findings was subject to cross-examination before the jury.