After an eight-day search the 11-year-old boy's body was found dumped on a nearby beach.Wayne confessed to the crime, and in January this year was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

In his first interview, he recalls that terrible day and his feelings as he realised the enormity of what he had done.He talks about his young friend, the times they spent together, his religious convictions, and the guilt which led him to admit to the killing.And he reveals his horror whenRobert's mother Majella made a statement revealing the presence of semen on her son's dead body

SECURITY is tight. An electronic metal door slides open. Visitors pass through an airport-style metal detector. Then, more heavy metal doors and iron gates. The eerie silence of the prison corridor is interrupted by the sound of footsteps and the rattle of keys.

From a window, Padraig Nally, the man who was sentenced to six years for the manslaughter of the Traveller John Ward last year, can be seen working in the prison garden. A prison officer points in the direction of the visiting room.

Inside, the most talked-about 21-year-old in the country can be seen through the glass panel door.

Wayne O'Donoghue smiles as he introduces himself. The face of the student that was splashed across every newspaper in the country is not as recognisable now. He has grown a beard. His hair is a little shorter than it was during last December's trial and he has put on weight. The weight gain has been propelled by his medication . . . anti-depressants that help him cope with the events of the last 16 months.

He is wearing a navy fleece top, as he has been out working in the prison garden where he spends most of his day. It passes the time. Wayne O'Donoghue lives his life between his cell and the prison garden. But no matter where he is, his mind is constantly focused on one day . . . 4 January 2005.

"I never stop thinking about what happened. I think about it 24-7. I just keep thinking why did this happen to me? Why did it happen to Robert?

"It was just a normal day like any other day. I had spent the morning studying for college and I had been visiting my girlfriend earlier as well.

When Robert came to the house it happened. It all happened so quickly. He threw a handful of pebbles at my car and one of them hit me on the back of the neck. That's when it happened. It was over in seconds."

At O'Donoghue's trial, the court heard how he caught Robert Holohan in an armlock, put his hand to the boy's throat and the young boy died from asphyxia due to neck compression. The former engineering student thinks constantly about those seconds when Robert Holohan's life ended and his own life changed irrevocably.

"I think about the Holohan family a lot, as they have lost Robert out of all this, " explained O'Donoghue. "I cannot say how sorry I am for everything that has happened to them. I think that by getting a four-year sentence, I was treated fairly by the courts, but this is not a four-year sentence, this is a life sentence. I will feel sorry for what I did until the day I die. It will always be on my mind."

O'Donoghue described how Ballyedmond, like rural townlands across the country, is one of those places where children of all ages mix together, as there may not be people of their own age living nearby.

"All of the kids in Ballyedmond were very close.

We all hung around together like any other rural area in the country, " said O'Donoghue.

"My brothers and myself were very close to the Holohans. Majella would often ask me to look after Robert for a few hours because she knew she could trust me. We had been friends for about four or five years, although we were probably not as friendly in the last year, as I had got a car and I was always away in the car in town or at my girlfriend's house. Robert had taken up horse-riding so he was doing that a lot as well, so we didn't see as much of each other in the last year."

Looking back on 4 January 2005, O'Donoghue points out that he was not even meant to be at home on the day. "The only reason I was back at the house was because one of my brothers had bought an exercise bike and he wanted me to collect it and bring it home for him."

After collecting the exercise bike in Midleton, O'Donoghue decided to stay at the house, and that is when Robert Holohan called to the O'Donoghue house. While Robert's death happened in seconds, it is what occurred after his death that has been the subject of most media and public comment, particularly after his mother made her victim impact statement in Ennis at O'Donoghue's sentencing hearing.

During his trial in Cork last December, O'Donoghue's barrister, Blaise O'Carroll, described how O'Donoghue and Robert Holohan had "an extremely beautiful relationship" which led O'Donoghue to build a tree house for the young boy and play hurling with him as well as drive him into Midleton for ice creams and DVDs.

It was in the context of "this special relationship" that O'Donoghue panicked when he realised he had killed Robert.

"Had I been thinking any way logically, I would have rang an ambulance or the gardai, but panic set in, " said O'Donoghue. "I dragged Robert into the house to the bathroom and tried to get him back. I laid him out on the floor in the bathroom and even though I didn't know what I was doing, I lifted his right hand to check for a pulse."

It is understood that when O'Donoghue dropped Robert's hand onto the bath mat, a tiny trace of semen got onto the deceased's hand.

The Sunday Tribune has learned that detailed forensic tests carried out by a group of DNA experts in the United Kingdom found that the trace of semen on the bath mat was not that of Wayne O'Donoghue.

By taking DNA samples from all the males in the O'Donoghue house, the experts found that the trace of semen came from another member of the O'Donoghue family and, crucially, not from Wayne. "That semen was definitely not mine, and I couldn't believe when people started to say that there was anything else going on between us, " said O'Donoghue.

"I couldn't believe it when Majella Holohan got up and said that there was semen on Robert's body during her victim impact statement."

Sitting last week in the visitor room of the Midlands Prison, O'Donoghue said he understood Majella Holohan's motivation for making her victim impact statement, but vehemently refutes her allegations. "I can see why Majella Holohan came out with what she said at the time, and I don't hold anything against her for what she said. I have no problem doing my time in here, but there is no way there was anything going on between Robert and myself."

Refuting Majella Holohan's allegation that pictures were taken on Robert's mobile phone in Wayne's bedroom at 7.30am, O'Donoghue said, "When Robert got the picture phone working he took a picture of a poster in my room in the afternoon. The time on his phone was not set properly and that is how it looked like he was in my room at 7.30am."

O'Donoghue also offered an explanation to Majella Holohan's question about her son's body being found without his shoes. "When I was dragging Robert into the bathroom, one of his shoes came off. I ended up wrapping that in a plastic bag before I put the body into the boot of the car. When I got to Inch, his other shoe had come off. I was in such a state at the time that I must have been driving around the back roads to Inch at about 100 miles an hour. The body would have been thrown about in the boot and that could be how the other shoe came off. If people think about where I dumped the body, they could see how much of a panic I was in."

For nearly eight days, Robert's body lay in a ditch near Inch Strand. In that period, the young boy's disappearance was elevated from a local tragedy to a national concern. Wayne O'Donoghue assisted in the search for the 11-year-old.

He reassured the boy's mother that her son would be found. He also filled in a garda questionnaire and gave two witness statements to gardai.

When asked about the way he participated in the search and concealed the truth, O'Donoghue said, "I was in such a state of shock and panic throughout those days. I had not slept or anything.

I can say that the night that I handed myself in, I had the best night's sleep I ever had in my life, as I hadn't slept in days. I knew that I had finally owned up and that it was off my chest."

Twelve days after Robert was reported missing . . . O'Donoghue eventually told his father, Ray, that he had killed Robert. His father immediately contacted the gardai. "I just couldn't keep going on not telling anyone what had happened to Robert so I told my father. There was no else in the world I was able to tell. I knew that he was the only person that would be able to take the news and know what to do. I told him everything and I broke down. He rang the gardai and got them to come to the house, so that I could make a statement and hand myself in."

Ray O'Donoghue locked his son into a garden shed as he feared he might take his own life. "He even checked my pockets, in case I had a knife, when I went to the toilet, " Wayne recalled. "If I had not told him what happened, I would probably just have cut my throat with a knife as I was in such a state. I just couldn't keep it going."

Members of O'Donoghue's immediate family visit every week in prison. But since the false allegations of paedophilia, many of his friends have stopped coming to see him. "I can understand why they started to believe it when I was called a paedophile across the front of some of the papers.

Before the allegations were made, I got hundreds of letters. Some of them were even from the wives of gardai investigating the case saying that they believed what happened was an accident. I have not got as many letters since the allegations were made, but I still get some."

He is still in a relationship with his longtime girlfriend. "I am still going out with Rebecca and she comes to see me. She took a year out after doing her Leaving Certificate and now she is going to college in the UK, " said O'Donoghue.

There have been media reports that O'Donoghue has received death threats in prison.

He has been made aware that he may be in danger. "While some people have treated me differently in here after the trial and the allegations were made against me. I have friends in here." When asked if he associates with any other prisoners at the midlands prison, O'Donoghue said that he knows Padraig Nally and sees him working in the prison garden most days. "I spend most of my time working in the garden. In the evenings, I have a shower and spend time in my cell."

Formerly an engineering student at Cork Institute of Technology, O'Donoghue has not furthered his education during his time in prison.

"While there are courses inside here that are offered to me, none of them really interest me."

O'Donoghue believes in God and prays every night. "A few years ago, I was like a lot of teenagers as I would not go to mass that often.

When my grandmother died in 1998, I started praying every night and I still do. I have rosary beads in my cell and I say a few prayers every night."

O'Donoghue was sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Paul Carney at the Ennis sitting of the Central Criminal Court in January. He had already served 13 months of the sentence by that time and, while his case and the events of 4 January 2005 will always be with him, he is attempting to look towards life after his release.

"I am not really sure what I will do as I take each day one at a time in here, but I will probably go abroad for a few years, " O'Donoghue admitted. "I might go to England or somewhere and see after that about coming back to Ireland."

Top forensic scientist says there is no evidence of anything improper

A LEADING scientist from one of the UK's top forensic science laboratories has said that there is no evidence that anything improper took place between Wayne O'Donoghue and Robert Holohan.

The Sunday Tribune has obtained a previously undisclosed report carried out by Hayward Associates, a Cambridge based forensic science laboratory, which disproves allegations that sexual acts may have taken place between the 11-year-old schoolboy and the man who was convicted of his manslaughter last December.

"In my opinion the scientific findings do not provide any support for the view that any sexual acts took place between Wayne O'Donoghue and Robert Holohan, " stated Emma Lynch, a consulting forensic scientist.

A minute trace of semen was found on Robert Holohan's right hand during forensic examination of his body following its discovery near Inch Strand on 12 January 2005. Traces of semen were also found on a bathroom mat in the O'Donoghue house.

After strangling Holohan, O'Donoghue dragged the school boy into the O'Donoghue family bathroom and tried to revive him.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, O'Donoghue repeated a claim made in a statement to Gardai that he had lifted Holohan's right hand to check for a pulse and then dropped it onto the bath mat.

On the night O'Donoghue was arrested the bathroom mat and other items were taken from the O'Donoghue family home by gardai for forensic examination.

The DPP later informed O'Donoghue's legal team about the semen stains and they subsequently employed Hayward Associates in the UK to examine them.

The Sunday Tribune has learned that O'Donoghue's father Ray and his two brothers submitted swabs for the UK laboratory to generate DNA profiles.

Lynch examined the DNA profile of Wayne O'Donoghue, his father and his two brothers. Robert Holohan's DNA profile was also examined.

Lynch was then able to compare all of the O'Donoghue family DNA with the DNA sample from the bath mat and also the sample from Robert Holohan's right hand.

Lynch's report reveals that "semen staining tested from the bath mat and analysed using standard DNA profiling yielded a full DNA profile matching [another member of the O'Donoghue family].

She added that "The semen could not have originated from Wayne. . ."

"In my opinion, the scientific findings provide extremely strong scientific support for the view that the semen tested from the bath mat originated from [another member of the O'Donoghue family]."

Wayne O'Donoghue has always contended that the minute trace of semen found on Robert Holohan's right hand was innocently transferred from the bath mat to Robert's hand when Wayne placed him there while trying to revive him The report obtained by the Sunday Tribune concurs with O'Donoghue's statement.

Lynch states in her detailed report that "it is possible that semen was transferred to Robert Holohan's hands and nails indirectly, for example as a result of him having been placed on the semi-stained bath mat."

In drawing conclusions from her scientific analysis Lynch outlines her belief that there is no evidence that "any sexual acts took place between Wayne O'Donoghue and Robert Holohan."

During last December's trial the State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the court of the results of the autopsy she carried out on Robert Holohan's body at Cork University Hospital on 13 January 2005, the day after it was found.

She noted that Holohan was not yet sexually mature and she found there was no evidence of him being subjected to any violent sexual assault.

Nothing was introduced in court by the prosecution during the trial suggesting that anything improper took place between the then 20year-old engineering student and the 11-year-old schoolboy.

It has been reported that the prosecutors were concerned that the evidence might not be sustainable and its introduction might prejudice a fair trial for O'Donoghue.

Calm after the storm . . . answers to the questions Majella Holohan posed about the death of her son A minute trace of semen was found on Robert's right hand.

Traces of semen were also found on the bathroom mat which, along with other items, were taken from the O'Donoghue home by gardai on the night Wayne O'Donoghue was arrested.

The Director of Public Prosecutions informed O'Donoghue's legal team about the semen stains and they employed a forensic scientist, Emma Lynch, from the British firm Hayward Associates to examine them.

The Sunday Tribune can reveal that Wayne's father and two brothers submitted swabs to generate DNA profiles. These were then examined by Lynch, who also examined a DNA profile of Robert Holohan. Lynch was then able to compare all of the O'Donoghue family DNA with the complete DNA sample from the bath mat and also the sample from Robert Holohan's right hand.

The result of the forensic examination was there was a complete match between the sample from the bath mat and a sample taken from one of Wayne's family. It appears that the semen was transferred innocently from the bath mat to Robert's hand when Wayne O'Donoghue placed the boy there while trying to revive him.

In the conclusions to her report, Ms Lynch said: "In my opinion, the scientific findings do not provide any support for the view that any sexual acts took place between Wayne O'Donoghue and Robert Holohan."

Question 2: Why did Robert Holohan make 999 calls on his mobile phone, including one on the day he died?

The Sunday Tribune has seen a statement made to the gardai by a person in Ballyedmond outlining that Robert Holohan had previously dialled 999 while "messing around" with his phone.

Question 3: Why were there no fingerprints found on Robert's phone, not even Robert's? Who wiped it clean?

Majella Holohan stated that her son's phone had been wiped clean when it was found. Garda forensic experts were unable to raise an identifiable fingerprint profile from the phone as there needs to be at least 13 points of coincidence between the fingerprint traces on an exhibit and the finger print sample given by the suspect. Anything less than that is insufficient to call a match. In such a case, the forensic examination yields negative results. This provides a possible explanation for no fingerprints being found on the phone.

Question 4: Why did Wayne O'Donoghue fail to alert anyone about Robert's death?

In his interview with the Sunday Tribune, Wayne O'Donoghue says that he was "in a state of shock and panic throughout those days". He said: "Had I been thinking any way logically, I would have rang an ambulance or the gardai, but panic set in." During the trial, O'Donoghue's Senior Counsel Blaise O'Carroll said: "Wayne O'Donoghue plunged into the abyss and was overcome by feelings of fear."

Question 5: Why were both of Robert's runners off just after he died?

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, Wayne O'Donoghue offered an explanation as to why Robert Holohan's shoes were off him when his body was discovered. "When I was dragging Robert into the bathroom, one of his shoes came off. I ended up wrapping that in a plastic bag before I put the body into the boot of the car.

"When I got to Inch, his other shoe had come off. I was in such a state at the time that I must have been driving around the back roads to Inch at about 100 miles an hour. The body would have been thrown about in the boot and that could be how the other shoe came off."

Question 6: Why didn't forensic examination of O'Donoghue's car verify his story that Robert threw stones at it?

Wayne O'Donoghue admitted to gardai in a videotaped interview which was shown to the jury at his trial last December that he was annoyed when Robert Holohan began throwing pebbles at his car outside his home on 4 January, 2005.

The jury heard how Robert had started "popping" pebbles at O'Donoghue's car at around 3.30pm as he left.

O'Donoghue had refused to take him to McDonalds in Midleton for a milkshake.

As the forensic examination of O'Donoghue's car cannot verify that Robert threw stones at the car, this question remains unanswered with only O'Donoghue's version of events available. However, the issue of the stones being thrown was covered during the trial and was heard by the jury before it reached its verdict.

Question 7: Why were images cleared from Robert's mobile phone?

A number of images were deleted from Robert Holohan's phone. The Sunday Tribune has seen a statement made to the gardai by a resident of the Ballyedmond area which proved definitively that the pictures on Robert Holohan's phone had not been taken by Wayne O'Donoghue. It seems likely that the prosecution did not introduce the issue of the deleted images in court as it was of no evidential value to them in the presentation of their case.

Question 8: Why did Wayne O'Donoghue call Robert at 6am?

Phone records from mobile phone service providers Vodafone and O2 prove that there was no communication between Wayne O'Donoghue's phone and Robert Holohan's phone at that time.