THE STORY put forward by a woman accused of beating her neighbour to death on Christmas Day “goes up in a puff of smoke”, a lawyer claimed yesterday.
Under cross-examination from Liam McCollum QC, prosecuting counsel, for a second day at Belfast Crown Court, 45-year-old Dublin pharmacist Karen Walsh reiterated her insistence she “could not have been nicer” to her neighbour. The naked and beaten body of 81-year-old Maire Rankin was found on the bedroom floor of her Dublin Road home in Newry by her brother-in-law on Christmas morning in 2008.
Ms Walsh, originally from Galway but who lived next door to Ms Rankin, denies the murder, claiming when she left in the early hours, “she was perfect” but did have breathing difficulties.
It is the crown case that Ms Walsh is linked to the crime scene, Ms Rankin’s body and a crucifix possibly used in the assault by DNA evidence.
Yesterday, Mr McCollum put a series of suggestions to Ms Walsh, alleging she was drunk and had called to her neighbour’s house to continue drinking after she had had an argument with her husband, Richard Durkin.
“She would have said to you, ‘You are ruining your life, you have a beautiful son next door and a husband, what are you doing here in the middle of the night, on Christmas night’ but you didn’t want this old lady telling you how to live your life. You pushed her and then grabbed the crucifix and started hitting her on the head.”
Mr McCollum continued: “You were drunk and tired and no way were you going to take this from this woman telling you how to live your life, and then realising what had happened, you panicked because you thumped her, beat her with the cross and there she is lying on the floor and you realised too late that she had been killed and then you started throwing things around the room to make it look like it was ransacked and carried out this sexual assault to make it look like there was some male who did it.”
“No it’s not,” said Ms Walsh, “I could not have been nicer to her.”
“You took her clothes off and that is why there’s DNA from you on her breasts,” suggested the lawyer. Again, Ms Walsh denied the claims, telling the court: “No it’s not, I hugged and kissed her.”
The jury has heard seven phone calls were made from Ms Rankin’s phone and that apart from one or two different digits, they almost match Ms Walsh’s husband’s mobile and office phone numbers.
Mr McCollum put it to Ms Walsh that in a “panic” and realising what she had done, but being locked out of her house, she tried to call her husband to get in.
“The evidence I suggest to you points to all these things having happened,” said the lawyer.
“That’s the truth of the matter because when you analyse your story and this idea that you were running around looking for an inhaler, it all goes up in a puff of smoke.”
But again, Ms Walsh said: “I could not have been nicer to Ms Rankin. She was very wheezy.”
Later, the jury heard evidence from the former assistant State pathologist for the Republic, Dr Declan Gilsenan, who said that in his opinion Ms Rankin died as a result of a “cardiac arrhythmia” of her heart, brought on by the stress of the assault. He told defence lawyer Peter Irvine that having examined Ms Rankin’s body on January 5th, 2009, he believed the bruising which covered her forehead and extended down to her eyebrows and nose had been caused by her hair being pulled from her head, rather than her being struck.
The retired pathologist said he formed that opinion having heard the pensioner had been prescribed long-term aspirin and steroids, one an anti-coagulant and another which would have made her tissues more delicate, causing more extensive bleeding.
The trial continues.