42 years after he was jailed for killing his neighbour Una Lynskey the Court of Criminal Appeal has found Martin Conmey's manslaughter conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

He has won his case after a new fact came to light that key evidence had been suppressed by the state.

Civil servant Una Lynskey (19) was last seen getting off a bus about half-a-mile from her home on Porterstown Lane in Ratoath, Co Meath on the evening of October 12th 1971.

The following year her neighbour Mr Conmey and his friend Dick Donnelly were convicted of her manslaughter.

Martin Kerrigan, who was also a suspect, was abducted and killed by a cousin of Una Lynskey's and her two brothers after her decomposed body was discovered in the Dublin mountains.

Mr Donnelly's conviction was overturned the following year on appeal but Mr Conmey served three years in prison and had to wait until 2010 for his name to be cleared.

That was the year it emerged that witnesses whose evidence at the trial placed the accused man and his friends in a car near the scene had initially given 'quite different statements' to gardai which were never disclosed to the defence.

No explanation has ever been given by the state for suppressing important evidence, but one of the relevant witnesses Sean Reilly now says he was physically assaulted and pressurised by gardai into altering his statement.

Without the testimony of these key witnesses, the Court of Criminal Appeal has found there is no ''untouched'' body of incriminating evidence capable of establishing a case against Mr Conmey.

He has welcomed the decision by the Court of Criminal Appeal that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice. He gave this brief statement outside court next to his wife, Ann:

He did not confirm if he will now seek compensation from the State.

Originally published 11:25