A man has been remanded in custody for sentencing after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his 82-year-old grandmother, who was fatally injured when he dragged her down the stairs of their Co Cork home in a fit of rage.
Brian Nnadi Ogbo (38) had previously pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to the unlawful killing of Stella Ejiatu Nnadi at Garrydhu Drive, Kilmoney Road, Carrigaline on February 25th, 2023.
Det Garda Tom Delaney told the court Ogbo got into a row with his mother, Ruth Ogbo, on February 23rd, 2025 after she discovered he had eaten all the food in the house. She threatened to cut off the wifi and he attacked her. She ran to a neighbour to raise the alarm.
Ogbo then went upstairs and pulled his grandmother from the bathroom. He was dragging her down the stairs head first as his mother was calling the emergency services and telling them her son was having a serious mental breakdown and had threatened to kill her, his sisters and grandmother.
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Gardaí arrived at the scene and arrested Ogbo, who was brought to Cork University Hospital (CUH) and committed under the Mental Health Act. He was later discharged and given a letter to attend on a voluntary basis.
Stella Nnadi was shaken and did not go to hospital, but two days later Ruth Ogbo returned home to find her unresponsive. She was rushed by ambulance to CUH where a scan showed a bleed on the brain. She failed to regain consciousness and died later that day.
Delaney said he and Det Sgt Simon Grace called to the Ogbo home later that day and spoke to the accused who, after caution, told them he became angry when his mother took away the wifi box. He said he picked up a knife and went upstairs where his grandmother was in the bathroom.
“She told me she couldn’t open it. I broke the door, dragged her out, dragged her down the stairs ... I can remember she was going face down, face first, down the stairs. I was holding her by the hand ... She fell down the stairs and got up. I locked her out of the house.”
He later stated: “I dragged her by the hand down the stairs ... I used my two hands. She wanted to stand up. She told me this at the bottom of stairs ... She was crying and shouting, she stood up ... I believe she hurt herself. I didn’t want to kill her. I wanted to create a scenario and everybody to leave.”
State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers carried out a postmortem on the deceased and concluded she died from blunt force trauma to the head as a result of being pulled down the stairs. She had bruising to her right arm which supported Ogbo’s account of pulling her down the stairs by the arm.
Defence counsel Jane Hyland pleaded for leniency, saying it was a “very tragic set of circumstances”. She said Ogbo was a very intelligent man who went to a prestigious school in Nigeria but began suffering mental health difficulties in 2014. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2017.
“This is a situation where his mental state was so impaired that he could have gone for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity,” she said. “He satisfied the criteria. He was unable to refrain from committing the act. He did not know that what he was doing at the time was wrong.”
The court heard Ogbo’s parents broke up in highly dysfunctional circumstances, with his father beating his son and attributing his behaviour to defiance rather than illness.
When Ogbo came to Ireland first in December 2024, he was still taking his medication but was unable to get it in injection form in the State.
Counsel said Ogbo had a close relationship with his grandmother and was “devastated” by her death. She described it as a “complicated loss” with his grief being exacerbated by the fact he was unable to attend her funeral. She noted that Ogbo had no previous convictions.
Judge Sinéad Behan said prison was not a suitable environment for Ogbo, but she needed to see details of a psychiatric care plan for the accused for whenever he is released. She adjourned sentencing until March 4th.
