Lawlor used sex to stop urges to kill, trial hears
KITCHENER — Derrick Lawlor, accused of murdering Mark McCreadie, said in a recorded police statement played in court on Thursday that he went to Victoria Park for a “homoerotic” experience and saw two men in a wooded area having sex and joined in. Lawlor told police he knew the other man with McCreadie and had had a previous sexual encounter with the man in his home. He said he had a scarf and recalls having it around a man’s throat.
In the police statement, he said that being promiscuous was a way to avoid hurting someone. He would have sex and the thoughts of hurting others would stop, he said.
Lawlor told Waterloo Regional Police Det. Const. Les Pyke that he had urges to kill and that he had rage.
“It’s getting worse, it’s escalating. I can’t stop the urges, the thoughts to kill someone,” he said.
Lawlor, 56, of Waterloo faces a firstdegree murder charge in connection to the death of 50-year-old McCreadie.
The Kitchener man’s body was found in a wooded area near the Iron Horse Trail in Victoria Park on April 10, 2014. He had been strangled the night before, the Crown says.
McCreadie was a separated father with two grown children and a granddaughter. He lived in a rooming house on Agnes Street.
Court heard that Lawlor, while in the psychiatric ward at Grand River Hospital, called police five days after McCreadie’s body was found and said he wanted to speak to them about the death in Victoria Park.
“If I’m responsible in any way, I want to take responsibility for it,” Lawlor said.
In the interview with police, Lawlor said he had been “violently raped” by a man a year before McCreadie’s death. He said he was initially ashamed but then said he began drinking and “cruising for
perpetrators.”
“I became sexually promiscuous last year after the rape,” Lawlor told police.
Lawlor told the officer he needed help and often tried to stop himself from hurtful thoughts.
“There are times I go into a dark place in my mind,” he said, adding he had rope and a knife.
But, he said, “I never hurt anyone that I can remember.”
Lawlor told police he would go to Victoria Park “cruising” for sexual encounters with men.
In the audio recording, the officer repeatedly tells Lawlor that anything he says in the interview may be used against him later. Lawlor says he understands.
At one point, Lawlor says he’s scared to incriminate himself and provide false information.
“You think you have something to do with this?” Pyke asks Lawlor. He says yes.
Lawlor said when he first heard of the death on the news, he panicked and “started freaking out.” He went looking for his backpack, his coat and his knife.
Lawlor told the officer that the day before the body was found in the park, he had lost his job at the University of Waterloo.
Lawlor was on contract as a student adviser at AccessAbility Services at the university, providing advice to students with disabilities. He was told that his contract wouldn’t be renewed.
“It caused me to be very anxious,” Lawlor said.
Lawlor, who takes anti-anxiety medication, said he got the urge to drink.
He described how he would talk himself out of hurting others.
“I would sit there and fight with myself to fight those urges,” he said.
In one instance, Lawlor described a time in which he met a businessman in Victoria Park and was invited to his house outside of St. Jacobs.
Lawlor said they talked and the man asked him why he was so nervous.
“I was fighting with myself, the urges, trying to convince myself he was a decent guy and not who I thought he was,” he said.
“I had the knife with me that night,” he said.
In the police interview, Lawlor refers to a “blackout” on April 9, 2014, and said there are parts he doesn’t remember.
Lawlor said he remembers buying five beers. He said he tried to stop himself from drinking the beer and go home but the urge was too strong.
He said he walked to Park Street and sat on a bench in Victoria Park. He recalls opening one beer and drinking it, followed by a second beer.
“The next thing I remember was being here and talking to the security guard at the desk,” said Lawlor, referring to Grand River Hospital. A nurse told him he arrived at the hospital at 1:50 a.m.
On April 10, his sister from Calgary called and asked him if he was OK.
“Why are you asking me?” Lawlor said.
His sister told him that he had called her the night before and said he was at a bar and he had taken all of his pills.
Lawlor said he checked his phone and saw that he had made a call at 11:30 p.m. from McCabe’s Irish Pub and Grill in Kitchener.
He remembered seeing blood on his hands while at McCabe’s that night and going to the washroom to wash it off.
The jury, made up of eight women and six men, also viewed video footage of Lawlor’s movements on April 9. There were four videos showing Lawlor’s whereabouts, including at a liquor store, McCabe’s, a variety store and then at the hospital emergency room.
Court heard that Lawlor was initially arrested on April 17, 2014, for aggravated assault and then later on June 3 for murder.
The trial continues on Monday.