Courts

Court to hear ‘distressing evidence’ in trial over killing of ‘gentleman’ pensioner with machete

Patrick McDonagh is charged with murdering his next door neighbour Peter McDonald (73) in Dublin 15

When arraigned before the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Mr McDonagh pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to Mr McDonald’s manslaughter. File photograph: Matt Kavanagh

Paul Neilan
Wed Jan 24 2024 - 20:01

A Central Criminal Court jury has been told they will hear “distressing evidence” of a “gentleman” pensioner who was found in a pool of blood outside his home after being violently killed with a machete.

The court was told that gardaí who responded to an early morning call from the pensioner only left his home minutes before his death.

Patrick McDonagh (52) with an address at Whitechapel Road, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, is charged with murdering his next-door neighbour Peter McDonald (73) on Whitechapel Road on July 25th, 2020.

When arraigned before the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Mr McDonagh pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to Mr McDonald’s manslaughter.

READ MORE

The plea was not accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and a jury was sworn in to hear the trial.

In his opening speech on Wednesday, Philipp Rahn SC, for the State, told the jury that the evidence will show that Mr McDonald died by machete and stabbing wounds to the head and neck in the early hours of July 25th.

Mr Rahn said that he expected the main issue for the jury to grapple with was whether Mr McDonagh’s mental health on the night amounted to the “special defence of diminished responsibility” on the charge of murder.

Mr Rahn told the jury that Mr McDonald was a “quiet man, a pensioner, who kept to himself and lived with his cats” and that Mr McDonagh, who had a history of mental health issues, was his next-door neighbour for five or six years.

Mr Rahn told the jury that there would be “distressing” evidence in the case and that Mr McDonald was found dead outside his home in a pool of blood after sustaining “violent chopping and incisive wounds” to his head and neck.

Counsel said that blood and blood spatter was also discovered by gardaí in Mr McDonald’s bathroom and hallway.

Mr Rahn said it will be “clear that the killing occurred in circumstances where the accused intended to kill or cause serious injury” to Mr McDonald.

The case “is not an Agatha Christie-type situation”, Mr Rahn told the jury. He said that at around 10.30pm Mr McDonagh could be seen by neighbouring witnesses in and around his front garden “praying and making a racket” and he may have been seen to have something in his hand.

Counsel said that at 4.20am, Mr McDonald rang gardaí who attended his home for around 15 minutes and left just before 5.50am. Just after 5.50am, however, “screaming and pleading for help” could be heard by neighbours on the street, said Mr Rahn.

Mr Rahn said gardaí returned “very quickly” to the scene and saw Mr McDonald lying in a pool of blood with “catastrophic injuries” including a large penetrating wound to his neck with no signs of life present.

Counsel said Mr McDonald suffered “multiple chopping and stabbing wounds, incise wounds and fractured bones”.

A bloodstained machete and knife were seized from the scene at Mr McDonagh’s home by gardaí, he said.

“The ultimate issue is what type of unlawful killing it was, and we say, plain and simple, it was murder,” said Mr Rahn.

Witness Catriona Byrne told Mr Rahn

she saw Mr McDonagh get down on one knee and pray and that he looked “drunk and fighting with himself”. The witness said she believed Mr McDonagh had a machete in one hand, a clear bottle of “possibly spirits” in the other and that she saw the defendant banging the machete off the ground.

Witness Paul Cahalane also lived opposite Mr McDonagh’s home.

Mr Cahalane said he knew Mr McDonagh to say hello to and talk to him. “I knew there was something odd – he had a bush in the front garden and blessed himself at it”, said the witness.

The witness said he heard Mr McDonagh’s voice at around 3.15am and looked out and saw Mr McDonagh pushing in the door of Mr McDonald’s house and that “twice he said he [Mr McDonagh] was going to kill him [Mr McDonald]” .

The witness said there was a scuffle at the door where Mr McDonald was “defending himself” and Mr McDonagh returned to his own house.

Mr Cahalane said he told gardaí he did not believe Mr McDonagh “to be right in the head” and that he was “mentally unstable, praying to a medal hanging from a bush”.

Witness Adam Leyton also lived opposite the homes of the two men. At around 5.53am was in bed in the front bedroom and was awoken by loud screams, he told Mr Rahn.

Mr Leyton said he heard a male voice scream “help me, help me”.

The witness said Mr McDonagh walked slowly out of Mr McDonald’s garden and then “barricaded himself” into his own house.

The trial before Mr Justice Michael MacGrath and a jury of nine men and three women is expected to last up to two weeks.

  • Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
  • Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
  • Our In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here
LATEST STORIES