‘Good Samaritan’ stabbed 28 times by mansheletliveinherhouse,courttold

A ‘GOOD Samaritan’ was stabbed 28 times and battered to death with kitchen pans by a man she had provided a home for, a court has heard.

The body of “vulnerable” Pauline Kilkenny lay undiscovered for almost a week after Joseph Dolan repeatedly stabbed her in the neck, face, back and chest.

Dolan (29), formerly of Cavan town in Co Cavan, was originally charged with the murder of Ms Kilkenny, whose body was found in November 2018 at her isolated bungalow on the Cornacully Road in Belcoo, Co Fermanagh.

But that charge was withdrawn after medical reports assessed he was suffering from a personality disorder at the time.

Last December Dolan pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the 59-year-old by way of diminished responsibility as he had taken prescription drugs before he attacked her as she lay dying, including the drug Lyrica.

Dolan further admitted stealing Ms Kilkenny’s Fiat Panda car and perverting the course of justice by falsely implicating his former girlfriend in the crime.

Members of Ms Kilkenny’s family sat dignified in the public gallery yesterday as senior prosecution counsel Ciaran Murphy QC told Dungannon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, that Ms Kilkenny had been living in Belcoo for a number of years and by way of a ‘Good Samaritan’ act had taken in Dolan and he was living in her spare bedroom.

He said Ms Kilkenny worked at a shop in Belcoo and on November 7, 2018 she decided to take a few days off and was due to start back just days later.

Butwhenshedidnotshowup for work a colleague alerted family members.

One of Ms Kilkenny’s sisters went to her isolated bungalow on November 13, 2018. Inside, said Mr Murphy, Ms Kilkenny was found lying under a window, face down in a pool of blood.

After the alarm was raised, police attended and found her body to the right side of the bed surrounded by a lot of blood.

As her body was cold, police believed she had been “dead for some time”.

The court heard police were on the look-out for Ms Kilkenny’s Fiat Panda car and when it was spotted later that afternoon, an officer stopped the vehicle, arresting the driver Dolan for Ms Kilkenny’s murder.

Dolan’s ex-girlfriend told police that on November 7, 2018, he came to her home and she noticed he had cash in £10 and £20 notes and a Santander bank card in the name of ‘P Kilkenny’.

The court heard that Dolan returned to Ms Kilkenny’s home on November 8, 2018 and moved her Fiat car from the property.

A post-mortem examination revealed that Ms Kilkenny sustained 28 stab wounds to the neck, face, back, chest and right arm along with four blunt force trauma injuries to the head after Dolan had battered her with kitchen pans.

The senior prosecutor said it was a “vicious, unprovoked attack on an innocent, vulnerable victim” and that she had been stabbed “when she was either dead or close to death”.

Mr Murphy read a victim impact statement from one of Ms Kilkenny’s nieces who described her aunt as “the epitome of light”.

“She would brighten up faces, rooms and lives” she said.

“Nothing will take away the pain of this loss.

“I tell my stories to the sky now when I visit her grave.”

Dolan had 27 previous convictions in the Republic of Ireland, including violent disorder.

In 2013, he was sentenced to three years for robbery and for beating a Drogheda pensioner and stabbing a taxi driver.

Describing the killing as a “terrible tragedy”, defence counsel Jim Gallagher QC said: “At the outset it is appropriate that we, as the defence for the defendant, make it absolutely clear that the deceased was a very good person.

“She was a person who was kind and generous to the defendant and indeed she brought him in and put a roof over his head in circumstances where he had few options at the time.

“And of course we expressly accept that it makes it all the more dreadful that she died in the circumstances in which she

❝ She had the greatest misfortune to be present when the defendant was in some disorder of mind

did. Regrettably, when one looks at the facts of the case she had the greatest misfortune to be present when the defendant was in some disorder of the mind suffering from a mental disorder, acting in the way that he did.”

Mr Gallagher told Mr Justice Colton that Dolan was “shocked and distressed when he ultimately realised what he did’’.

The Judge said he had a “lot of material” he wanted to consider before passing sentence on February 28.