Posted by Updated / Wednesday, 14 Jan 2026 20:13
Legal Affairs Correspondent
A 32-year-old woman has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her partner’s four-year-old son in Limerick in March 2021.
Tegan McGhee, of no fixed abode, pleaded not guilty to the murder of four-year-old Mason O’Connell Conway, but changed her plea to guilty after medical evidence was heard at her trial last November.
Mason’s father, John Paul O’Connell, has already been jailed for seven years for assisting an offender, neglect and endangerment of a child.
Those involved can be named following an application by RTÉ and the publishers of the Irish Independent, Mediahuis, to have an order preventing their identification lifted.
‘A loving, caring, clever child’ – Mother of boy murdered by father’s partner
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the case involved the continuing abuse and isolation of a four-year-old boy.
The trial heard Mason was taken to hospital on 13 March 2021, after his father told emergency services he had fallen from a bunk bed.
O’Connell had been at work that morning but came home after a number of text messages and calls from McGhee who had been googling terms such as “concussion” and “why is it bad if you bang your head and go to sleep”.
In hospital, medical staff found the little boy was covered in bruises from head to toe, inflicted at different times.
He also had a broken rib, his liver was torn and he had suffered a catastrophic brain injury.
The trial was told the injuries were like those caused by a car crash or in a fall from a height and none of the bruising looked normal or accidental.
A paediatric consultant gave evidence that an operating theatre full of medics “gasped” when they saw the extent of the injuries on the child’s face and body.
Mr Justice McDermott ruled photographs of Mason in hospital were too distressing to be shown in court and would have overwhelmed the jury.
Mason’s life support was turned off three days after he was brought to hospital.
Mason had been living with his father and McGhee for a number of months as his mother was suffering from mental health problems.
Ms Conway said she had trusted them to mind Mason, and for that she would never forgive herself.
Mr Justice McDermott said the nature of the abuse of a very small boy was “continuous”.
He said Mason was isolated and kept out of sight and out of contact with family members and this indicated “abuse of a continuing nature”.
The court heard Mason was “grounded” in his room and forced to sit on the floor.
He was kept upstairs while family events, including birthday parties, took place downstairs.
Family members were not allowed to visit him and scheduled video calls with his mother’s family did not happen as they were told the little boy was too “bold”.
The judge said it must have been a very frightening and bewildering period for Mason.
He said there was evidence McGhee wasn’t coping but there was also evidence that she continued to mete out abuse, physical punishment and sanctions, which must have caused huge distress and fear.
He said there was also a continuous attempt to deceive emergency services and relations.
He imposed the mandatory life sentence on McGhee. He praised the extensive and very moving victim impact statement of Ms Conway and expressed his deepest sympathies to her and to the rest of the family.
Outside court Ms Conway was able to speak publicly for the first time since the legal proceedings began, due to the lifting of the order. She said it was a bittersweet day and although the family got justice, nothing would ever bring Mason back.
She described him as a “loving, caring, clever little child” who brought so much love and happiness into their lives. He had the “biggest, brown eyes,” she said, “and a smile from ear to ear”.
Ms Conway said her son was a “typical four-year-old little boy”, who loved “cars, bikes, school, playing with his siblings and friends and being at his Nanny’s house”.
She said he was a loveable child who “would give you his last little sweet”.
She said she couldn’t wait to watch him growing up and hitting his milestones, but unfortunately, she would never see him alive again.
Ms Conway said she would never forgive herself for trusting McGhee and John Paul O’Connell to mind Mason.
She said the last five years had been living hell and then she had to hear what her son dealt with in the days, weeks and months leading up to his death.
She said she had never heard “so much evil” in all her life .
She said that now she could tell her son’s story, his memory would enlighten the darkest moments in the future and she thanked Mason for the honour of being his mother.
Reporting restrictions had been put in place at the very beginning of the criminal proceedings.
Senior Counsel Ronan Kennedy and barrister John Maher on behalf of RTÉ and Mediahuis successfully argued that it was in the public interest to lift the restrictions and that the case could be reported by the media, while taking certain legal concerns fully into account.
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