Hammer attack accused ‘is no cold-blooded killer’
ROY Webster is not a cold-blooded killer but he lost all self-control when he beat Anne Shortall to death with a hammer, his barrister told a murder trial jury yesterday.
Brendan Grehan SC, in his closing speech, told the jury his client’s actions show he did not plan the attack and did nothing to cover up what he did.
Mr Grehan said: ‘This was not some cold-blooded killer. This was something that happened when someone lost control of himself.’
Mr Webster, 40, of Ashford, Co. Wicklow, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Ms Shortall on Good Friday, April 3, 2015. His plea was not accepted by the State.
His barrister said Mr Webster’s actions had a far-ranging impact, taking Ms Shortall from her family. The man’s own family, including his parents, have sundered their relationship with him, the court heard. ‘If ever it could be said that there is a case where there are no winners, only losers, this is it,’ said Mr Grehan.
Mr Grehan said the central theme of the prosecution’s closing statement had been that Mr Webster’s statements to gardaí were self-pitying when he admitted killing Ms Shortall after she threatened to tell his wife about a fling they had.
The barrister said this was not borne out by Mr Webster’s confession when he ‘gushed out in a torrent of words’ and told gardaí he had made a mistake that was ‘after ruining so many lives’.
He also asked the Central Criminal Court jury to consider what might happen if everything you held dear, your family, children and wife, were being put at risk. It is a human frailty to do things that we later regret when pushed to breaking point, he said.
Addressing evidence that Mr Webster went back to life as normal while 47-year-old Ms Shortall’s body lay in his van, Mr Grehan said to focus on that is to focus on the wrong place.
‘Your attention must be on the events leading up to the death of Anne Shortall,’ he told the jury.
Going into the background of the relationship with Ms Shortall, he said Mr Webster had met her the previous Christmas and betrayed his wife and his marriage vows with her.
He said this was nothing unique and that afterwards Mr Webster had no intention of having an affair.
Ms Shortall, who owed thousands in rent arrears and bills, later formed a plan to tell Mr Webster she was pregnant and demand money for an abortion.
Mr Grehan said Mr Webster was prepared to pay her money if she could prove she was pregnant. When they met on April 3 and she found out he did not have any money with him she got out of the van to ‘storm off’ and he got out to ‘reason with her’.
She threatened to go to his wife and he pleaded with her not to ruin his life. His head was spinning and, as he later told gardaí: ‘I could just see my whole world crashing down.’ Without thinking, he grabbed the first thing he could find and he hit her.
‘He totally loses it, and hits her again and again,’ said Mr Grehan.
What Mr Webster did following her death showed, said Mr Grehan, he had no plan to kill her. He said a person with a plan would have thought of a way to dispose of evidence and the body. ‘None of those hallmarks are present to you in this case,’ he said.
Finally, on the Tuesday, four days after Ms Shortall’s death, he admitted to his wife and gardaí what he had done. Mr Grehan said: ‘You have heard of getting something off your chest, and it comes out of him.’
He asked the jury to find Mr Webster not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
The jury began their deliberations at 3.30pm yesterday and are to resume these today.
‘He totally loses it and hits her’