The “heartbroken” mother of a man who was stabbed to death by the partner of the woman he was sleeping with in a fatal “love triangle” has said the worst part” is that her son died alone, and “had no one with him that cared about him”.

“It kills me that I had no time with him to tell him how much I loved him and what he meant to me and to comfort and console him in his last breath. He died alone and I literally cannot imagine what he went through,” Valarie McKeever told the Central Criminal Court in a victim impact statement today.

Ms McKeever said she “crumbled” to the ground, unable to stand as her legs “went to jelly” when she heard the news of her eldest child’s death. “My Graham gone, I just couldn’t comprehend it,” she said.

Ms McKeever stated that her son was “too decent to leave someone in trouble” and that is why he is now dead.

The testimony was heard as part of a victim impact statement read by  Valarie McKeever during Keith Connorton’s sentence hearing today.

Connorton (40) was found guilty of murdering Mr McKeever (32) at Deerpark Avenue, Tallaght on February 18, 2017 by a majority verdict of 10 to two last month.

Connorton had pleaded not guilty to stabbing his love rival to death, after he came home to find him sleeping with his partner.

During the trial the jury heard that Connorton was living with his long-term partner Claire McGrath at Deerpark Avenue.

In his garda interviews Keith Connorton said he met Claire McGrath at a Luas stop where she was crying after breaking up with her boyfriend. He consoled her and they struck up a bond that became a relationship.

He loved her “to bits”, he said, and when she became pregnant they were determined to kick their addictions to heroin.

But their relationship was described as “bumpy”. They frequently argued as Ms McGrath was often suspicious that Connorton was back using heroin.

She described herself as volatile, and said their frequent arguments would end with Connorton leaving the apartment to allow her to calm down.

After an argument she invited Mr McKeever to spend the night with her on the night he was killed.

When Connorton returned home at 4am he found the two of them together, and a fight broke out that resulted in Mr McKeever suffering four stab wounds – including one that penetrated his heart and killed him.

Rekindled

The Central Criminal Court has heard that Connorton and Ms McGrath have since reconciled and have rekindled their relationship.

The defendant said he acted in self defence after Mr McKeever punched him, breaking his eye socket, and then came at him with a knife.

Before sentencing Valarie McKeever told the court that February 18, 2017 is a day that will “haunt” her for the rest of her life.

“How do you put into words the impact and effect of losing your first-born child, how do you explain the utter devastation in being woken up on a Saturday morning by detectives banging the front door down to tell you your son has died and then to tell you the way he died?”

Ms McKeever said she had a nervous breakdown a month after they buried her son. “The grief was so intense, I couldn’t accept it, I still can’t accept that he is gone and we will never see him again.

“Our hearts are broken, never to be whole again because we lost Graham in the worst possible way. How do you come to terms with this kind of death, it just doesn’t feel real to any of us,” she said.

She passes her son’s grave in Newlands Cemetery every day going to work and the only consolation she has from this is that he is near her.

“I just try my best every day to get up and do what I have to do. I don’t look forward to anything anymore. I feel like I’m crying inside a lot of the time,” she said.

The mother of three said her heart hurts everyday with grief and trauma. “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare to lose a child but to lose your child the way my Graham was taken is just unbearable. I can see him in my mind fighting for his life,” she said.

“RIP my beautiful Graham, we love and miss you every minute of everyday. Look down on us all and help us come to terms with losing you until we are together,” she concluded.

Danielle McKeever, Mr McKeever’s sister, also entered the witness box during Connorton’s sentence hearing to deliver a second victim impact statement on behalf of her family.

Dreaded

Danielle said Graham was her big brother, her protector and her “very first friend in the world”. The very moment that I learned of Graham’s tragic death was the moment that separated her life into “a before and after”, the court heard.

Danielle said she was 17,000 miles away from home in Australia when she got the “dreaded phone call” and had to make the “gruelling journey alone”.

 “Twenty seven hours of having to exchange niceties with flight attendants and members of the public when inside the despair and heartbreak was flooding my body,” she explained.

She called Graham’s murder “cruel and senseless” and said her family was serving a “lifelong sentence” without him.

Addressing Connorton, Danielle said: “That moment that you killed my brother not only did you take away a fun, loving, handsome man with so much to live for but you took away a father, a son, a grandson, a brother, a nephew, a cousin and a friend to so many.”

“I can only describe the feeling as going through life with a huge rucksack of rocks on your back, dragging you down everyday, never getting any lighter but in fact increasingly heavier,” she said.

Connorton will now face “the consequences for his actions” but he will have the opportunity to watch his son grow and tell him he loves him, said Danielle, words that her nephew “will never hear again from his dad”.

Lorcan Staines SC, defence counsel for Connorton, told the court that his client wanted to apologise to the McKeever family.

Connorton took the stand and said: “I can never take back what happened, I’m very sorry for that. I never meant for any of this to happen, I’m sorry for your loss.”

Connorton has 41 previous convictions including misuse of drugs, robbery and dangerous driving. Sgt Coyne said the defendant had a “rough past” with drugs and lived the majority of his life in homeless accomodation in the city.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said it was a “shocking tragedy” but the defendant had to be punished in the same way as people that set out to cause harm.

“It is correct to say that no one makes the case that anyone set out on this night to cause the mayhem from this brief but incredibly tragic event,” he said.

When death comes “”suddenly and violently” it changes everyones world “utterly and immediately”, he said.

Mr Justice Hunt said Mrs McKeever and her daughter were “very courageous” to take the stand.

“The impact of evidence shows the devastating blow this is to Mr McKeever’s family and friends and I’d like to add my sympathies on his loss,” he added.

The judge stated that Mr McKeever’s young son has to be considered and he had no doubt that the family would pull together to mitigate the “horrendous effects” of this crime on them. He wished them well in their future attempts to deal with this “horrendous situation”.

In conclusion, Mr Justice Hunt said this was also a tragedy for Connorton but of a “much less variety” and if the defendant had a “shred  of sympathy” he would carry some of this with him.

The defendant has limited opportunities in his life although he faces a mandatory life sentence, he added.

Mr Justice Hunt then sentenced Connorton to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murder. The sentence was backdated to September 11 2017, when he went into custody.

Connorton hung his head as he was led away by prison officers.

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