Man acted ‘completely normal’ after killing ex-lover
A MAN on trial for the murder of an ex-lover was acting ‘completely normal’ on the evening he beat Anne Shortall to death with a hammer, his trial heard yesterday.
A friend of Roy Webster’s wife said in a statement that she was at the Webster home on the evening of Good Friday when Webster arrived home.
By then Webster had beaten Ms Shortall to death with a hammer after she threatened to tell his wife about a fling they had four months earlier, the Central Criminal Court has already heard.
When he arrived home, Ms Shortall’s bloodied body lay tied up with tape in his van. ‘Roy was acting completely normal,’ said Carmel Phibbs, Webster’s wife’s friend, in a statement read in court yesterday. Webster talked to his wife and showed her a small cut he had on his arm which he said he got while doing a tiling job. Later that weekend Ms Phibbs was at the home again and when Webster came in he said there was a woman missing and he was helping gardaí with their enquiries.
Gardaí did not find Ms Shortall until the following Tuesday when Webster broke down and told his wife that the body was in his workshop.
Detective Sergeant Fergus O’Brien, the lead investigator in the case, agreed with defending counsel Brendan Grehan SC that after Webster’s admission he was cooperative with gardaí. The jury also heard that Webster and the deceased exchanged calls and text messages on several occasions from March 25 through to the day of her death on April 3. Webster told gardaí Ms Shortall demanded Stg£6,500 from him so she could get an abortion.
When he failed to hand over the cash, he said she threatened to tell his wife about their sexual encounter and he beat her to death with a hammer.
Mr Webster, 40, of Ashbree, Ashford, Co. Wicklow, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Anne Shortall, 47, on Good Friday April 3, 2015 at The Murrough, Co Wicklow. His plea was not accepted by the State. The prosecution’s evidence will end on Monday.