Widower was killed by vicious kicks from his nephew, jury hears
Murder trial told pensioner was found dead in Clare home
A WIDOWER died after a vicious attack by his nephew who kicked him in the head while wearing steel-capped boots, a murder trial has heard.
The jury were also told by the State that they will have no difficulty finding that accused man Thomas Lorigan had an intention to kill or cause serious injury to Co. Clare pensioner, John O’Neill.
Mr Lorigan, 34, of no fixed abode, has pleaded not guilty to murdering John O’Neill, 79, at St Brendan’s Road, Lisdoonvarna, between January 6 and 7, 2022.
Opening the prosecution’s case yesterday, barrister Eilis Brennan, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said Mr O’Neill was 79 at the time of his death and was a relatively fit and healthy man.
He lived in a house in Lisdoonvarna that had been run as a bed and breakfast up to six months previously. Mr O’Neill’s wife had run the B&B but died the previous summer, in 2021. Mr O’Neill had lived alone since his wife’s death and the B&B was no longer in operation, said Ms Brennan.
She went on to tell the court that the prosecution case will be that Mr O’Neill went out for drinks around 6pm on the evening of January 6.
He had a few drinks in the pub and returned home in his car around 8pm that evening.
Counsel said the court will hear that the accused, Mr Lorigan, was 32 at the time and was the nephew of the deceased Mr O’Neill. She said Mr Lorigan is the son of Mr O’Neill’s sister.
The barrister said Mr O’Neill’s sister was married in Leixlip in Co Kildare and had three children. She died when Thomas Lorigan was still a child and that Mr O’Neill had acted as a guardian for the boy and his siblings, the court heard.
Ms Brennan added: ‘Mr O’Neill helped out in relation to the family at that stage but as the years turned by and as Thomas turned 18, the relationship became strained and they were no longer close. It doesn’t appear the deceased and Mr Lorigan saw a lot of each other at that stage.’
The lawyer also indicated to the jury that they will hear evidence that Mr Lorigan moved to the Clare area in the last few years and at that stage was not close to his uncle. She said that the accused man had ‘something of an unsettled life’, that he was sometimes seen in local bars or shops and that people knew him as ‘Mossy’. There will be evidence, counsel said, that Mr Lorigan found himself without a home in late 2021 and was living in a derelict house outside Lisdoonvarna.
Outlining the circumstances of Mr O’Neill’s death, Ms Brennan said that witness Walter Burke will give evidence that he was in his house drinking with Thomas Lorigan on the night of January 6. The jury will hear they were drinking bottles of red wine and that on various occasions Mr Lorigan went down to the Spar shop to get wine.
The barrister further stated that Mr Burke will testify that the accused left his house later that evening. ‘Mr Burke didn’t know how long Mr Lorigan was gone but when he came back the accused woke up Walter and said he had an argument with his uncle Mr O’Neill,’ she continued.
Counsel said that Mr Burke didn’t think the argument was serious and he went back to sleep. The accused also went to bed.
The next morning, Mr Burke and the accused continued the conversation from the previous night. ‘Mr Lorigan again referred to the incident with his uncle and indicated it could be something more serious.’
She said Mr Burke became alarmed, rang 999 and emergency services were dispatched to Mr O’Neill’s house at 8.10am on January 7. The emergency services got access to the kitchen area by breaking a window and discovered John O’Neill on the kitchen floor.
The court will also hear that family photographs were found smashed on a sideboard area in a back room at the scene.
A murder investigation was launched and gardaí went to Mr Burke’s home where they arrested Mr Lorigan. They seized several items of clothing which were believed to have been worn by the accused the previous night.
These items included jeans, gloves, a jacket and a particular kind of heavy steel-capped boots.
The State pathologist examined Mr O’Neill’s body and found severe blunt force trauma to his head mainly in the facial area.
There were multiple fractures to all of the bones in his face, which were in keeping with and characteristic of multiple kicks and stamping to the face.
She said CCTV footage shows two people talking outside Mr O’Neill’s residence at 9.20pm that night. A minute later the footage shows a person assaulting another person outside the B&B, she said.
Counsel added: ‘One man falls to the ground and is repeatedly kicked to the upper part of the body. The prosecution case is that he is being kicked in a ferocious manner in a very vicious assault. Then one sees a person drag the man into an archway and they disappear from view.’
Ms Brennan said the jury will also see footage of a man leaving the area a half hour later and walking towards Mr Burke’s house. ‘It is dark in the footage but the prosecution case is that the person committing that assault is Mr Lorigan,’ she said.
The court heard further evidence will be that gardaí gathered footage of Mr Lorigan going to Spar on a few occasions earlier that day. The prosecution would be inviting the jury to conclude that this is the same man who carried out the assault on Mr O’Neill.
The State will be calling scientific evidence which the prosecution says links the accused to the assault on the deceased. ‘This evidence will show you beyond a shadow of a doubt that this person was Thomas Lorigan who assaulted Mr O’Neill.’
Ms Brennan told the jury if a person kicks a 79-year-old man repeatedly in the upper body and head with steel-capped boots, then they will have no difficulty finding an intention to kill or cause serious injury. ‘The prosecution say he [Mr Lorigan] intended to kill him [Mr O’Neill] or cause him serious harm,’ she said.
The trial continues today before Judge Paul McDermott and a jury of five men and seven women. It is expected to last up to four weeks.
‘Relationship became strained’ ‘Intended to cause him serious harm