Sought to speak to a Priest
MURDER accused Keith Brady attempted to talk to a Priest as he was leaving a church behind a coffin following a funeral Mass on the morning Martin Kivlehan was found dead in his apartment on Holborn Street.
In a statement read to the jury by prosecuting senior counsel, Mr Paul Murray SC, Father Noel Rooney, parish priest at St Joseph’s Church, Ballytivnan said he was officiating at a funeral at Sligo Cathedral on Monday, August 3rd and was walking out behind the coffin at around 12.30pm when he was approached by Brady in the porch who asked could he speak with him.
Fr Rooney said he told Brady he couldn’t speak to him then but that he could later. As he was putting his vestments in his car a short time after, he was again approached by the accused.
The priest told him that he had seen interesting CCTV footage that morning from St Joseph’s Church where foreign coins had been stolen from the sacristy on the Sunday evening. Brady replied that it wasn’t him.
“‘Goodbye Keith’ I said and he walked off. I don’t know what he wanted to speak to me about but usually he asked for money,” said Fr Rooney.
Kitty Duggan from St Mary’s, Temple Street, stated how at 11am on the 3rd, the Bradys called and asked for a priest. She told them that they were down at a funeral. Keith Brady asked for a bottle of water and she gave them one and they went off again.
In a statement also read to the jury, Paul McGowan said how on the Monday morning at around 8.55am he was at the Cathedral with Colm Jinks in advance of a funeral. They had some jobs to do for it. He saw Janice in the grounds but did not know the man with her. They went into the Cathedral.
The witness heard her ask Mr Jinks for money in order to get a train to Longford. The witness told her he didn’t think it was appropriate for her to be in the church.
She was more on edge than her male companion.
Mr Jinks said he didn’t really know the Bradys. The male sat at the back of the church and he looked agitated. Janice Brady was up at the top sitting and she called over to him asking for money for the bus to Longford.
“She looked to me to be worried,” he said. Earlier, the jury of seven women and five men were shown CCTV from St Joseph’s which showed Keith Brady and his sister, Janice present.
Janice was seen entering the sacristy alone at 7. 19pm, on Sunday, 2nd, looking around and opening a press. Mass was being celebrated.
Fr Hugh McGonagle, in a statement read to the court, said he was curate at St Joseph’s for the past 13 years and was celebrating 7pm Mass on Sunday, August 2nd when he was approached by the accused beforehand and was asked for money.
Fr McGonagle refused to give him money. Brady, who was with his sister, then left. During the Mass Fr McGonagle saw them at the back of the church. He also saw Brady at the Cathedral the next day.
Sacristan, Padraig Kennedy, in a statement said he saw two people hanging about the church at 7pm. He was watching the man mostly.
He later discovered that the woman had been in the sacristy and that a drawer had been pulled out and that some bags of foreign currency, which was taken up in collections, had been stolen.
In a statement, Lukasz Bilinski, said he was a sales assistant at Topaz on the Bundoran Road and recalled how the Bradys, whom he knew well, came into the shop with a large bag of coins, mostly foreign and which also included old Irish coins. He told them he would only exchange euro coins for them and he did so, giving them back five euro. They left the store in the direction of town.
Another shop assistant, Anthea Feeney, stat-
eded she could smell alcohol from Janice BradyBrady. She was on about being homeless that night and asked to use the phone but the witness said she couldn’t allow her do this.
Peter Kerr, a social care worker at Shalomar, Finisklin, recalled in a statement how at 7pm on Sunday, August 2nd, the Bradys knocked on the door. Keith asked for a bottle of water and said they were dehydrated. The witness went and got a bottle of water and Janice grabbed it off him.
They were with another man, a fresh faced man and this surprised the witness. The Bradys looked shook, he said. They left to go in the direction of a derelict house. Sergeant John Walsh in a statement told how he went to a derelict house at Finisklin on the 4 th and 5 th of August. He saw makeshift beds, clothing and duvets there. He was directed to the house after Janice Brady, who was in custody at the time, had drawn a map. Nothing of evidential value was found.
Irish Rail worker, Shane Gilmartin told how at 7.25am on the 3rd he opened up the station and saw the Bradys coming in and going into the toilets. He heard Janice tell her brother “not to open your f ***ing mouth.”
After they left the witness inspected the toilets and in the ladies he came across cotton buds in the bin and old coins. There were also papers in the sink and the back of plasters. Around 11.30am or 12pm the witness saw them in the station again, this time they were leaving. The witness found foil in the ladies and more papers. The two would regularly get the Dublin train.
Garda James Conneely later brought away the bin and in it was tissue, 70 cotton buds, band aid, empty Rennie packet, plastic bottle and a number of gold, brown and silver coloured coins.