A woman who was jailed for trespassing on the property of a Galway man when he was tied up and beaten to death has said that her then boyfriend was at the scene on a date the State alleges he murdered the elderly recluse.
Ms Alison McCarthy, of Thurles, Co Tipperary, was given until today to refresh her memory after she repeatedly told the Central Criminal Court jury yesterday she could not remember details of what happened. Ms Justice Carroll directed Ms McCarthy to read statements she made to garda∅ before she returns to the witness box today.
Earlier, a convicted criminal, Gary Langan, of Ballybunnion, Co Kerry, told the court that the accused man, Mr Patrick O'Connor, admitted to him that he had tied up and beaten the elderly man in an attempt to rob him.
It was the fifth day of prosecution evidence in the trial of Mr Patrick O'Connor (37), of Kilgainey, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Tommy Casey (68), who died between January 15th-23rd 1996 at his home in Oranbeg, Oranmore, Co Galway.
Mr O'Connor also denies three further charges of trespass with intent to rob, and the assault and false imprisonment of Mr Casey on January 15th, 1996.
In evidence, Ms McCarthy, told Mr Peter Charleton that in January 1996, Mr O'Connor was her boyfriend. She said that she, her mother, another man and Mr O'Connor went by car "out to Oranmore". She agreed she had served a sentence for what she had done. "I was done for trespassing like. I can't really remember, it's so long ago and I had a nervous breakdown since." She told counsel she had been under "an awful lot of pressure in the Garda station in Galway" and that she "ended up in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum".
She said she was never in the old man's house, and accepted counsel's suggestion that she was on his property, but "perhaps in the garden, or outside".
Asked how she and the others were caught, she said their car was stopped in Galway by police and that she and the two men were arrested that night. Inside the car, garda∅ found a dagger-type knife, a wooden baton with cord grip attached and a small tomahawk, amongst other items.
Earlier, in other evidence, Gary Langan, a Mountjoy prisoner with 18 previous convictions, told the court he spoke to Mr O'Connor in Mountjoy sometime in early 1996 after O'Connor was given a two-year sentence for possession of offensive weapons in the car stopped on January 15th.
He told Mr Charleton that when he questioned Mr O'Connor about why he kept leaving the television room when the news came on, Mr O'Connor told him "that he tied up an old man in Galway" and "that he was going to rob the place".