The brother of a woman on trial for the murder of her eight-year- old son said yesterday that it was "inconceivable" to think his sister would harm any of her three sons. He said he was stunned.
Mr Patrick Costello was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Ms Jacqueline Costello (30). Ms Costello, formerly of Woodlawn Grove, Waterford, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her eldest son, Robert, at Deerpark, Mullinavat, on October 28th, 2000.
Mr Costello told Ms Miriam Reynolds SC, prosecuting, that when garda∅ contacted his family home on October 29th asking for someone to identify the deceased, his first thought was that his sister had harmed herself.
"I thought my sister had done something to hurt herself," Mr Costello said. "When they told me Jackie was implicated I was stunned." Mr Costello had travelled from Dublin to Waterford on the afternoon the tragic events took place because he had received a number of agitated phone calls from his sister.
During one phone call hours before the boy was strangled and suffocated, Mr Costello reassured his nephew. "She kept handing the phone to Robert, I told him not to worry and that I'd be down that night," he said.
"Her being with her children . . . it was all she really lived for," he said. "It was inconceivable that she would ever harm them." Since Ms Costello had broken up with her long-term partner in September 2000, she had been "trying to do too much at the one time".
The court heard that Ms Costello had tried to take an overdose in 1995 and on another occasion had tried to cut herself.
Meanwhile, Ms Costello's father told the court that his biggest mistake was turning Jacqueline away from the family home seven weeks before the incident. Mr Thomas Costello said that he and his wife could no longer cope with their daughter's condition.
Ms Miriam Reynolds told the jury that the issue it must decide upon was whether Ms Costello was guilty of murder or if she was insane at the time.
The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court today.