As Melissa Mahon's behaviour deteriorated, the presence of one man – Ronald McManus – loomed large, writes KATHY SHERIDAN
ONLY 60 per cent of Melissa Mahon’s remains were finally located, blown around the shores of Lough Gill 15 months after her body had been dumped close by in sleeping bag.
The bag “appeared to have been ripped open by animals and the clothed body removed and scattered over a wide area”, said Prof Marie Cassidy, the State Pathologist.
Not a trace of human tissue remained. It could never be established how the child met her death or whether she was pregnant by Ronnie McManus, as alleged by Angelique Sheridan, an ex-girlfriend of his.
Allegations of sexual activity between the slightly-built, five foot child – variously described as “very vulnerable and very fragile” – and Ronnie McManus were made by both his daughters.
Samantha recalled that Melissa said she was in love with McManus and was having a sexual relationship with him.
His youngest daughter, then 13, described seeing her father lying on top of Melissa in his bed on the September day she alleges Melissa was killed. His daughter asked what he was doing and he replied that he was “keeping her sweet”.
At that stage, Melissa, a troubled child with a record of truancy and who was alleging abuse by both parents, was in the care of the HSE. That summer, she had begun to spend virtually all her waking moments in the McManus home, a few minutes walk away in Rathbraughan estate, Sligo. McManus told gardaí that his sole intention was to help Melissa, whom he described as a “very hurt and very frightened human being”.
On August 4th, Mary Mahon rang the Garda to say Melissa had stayed out overnight but said she had decided to leave her to come home in her own good time.
But on August 22nd, when social worker Catherine Farrelly became aware that Melissa’s family had not seen or heard from her for nearly three weeks, she took Mary Mahon down to the Garda station.
Ms Farrelly and a garda called to Ronnie McManus, who told them he had no idea where Melissa was but said he was worried about her and wondered why the authorities hadn’t looked for her earlier – a constant theme of his exchanges with social services and gardaí. He also invited them to search the house but they declined.
During the trial, McManus’s daughter, Samantha, would testify that Melissa was actually in the home at this time, hiding behind the sofa at her father’s direction. Later, McManus contacted the HSE to say he had managed to make phone contact with Melissa, thus becoming the HSE’s sole conduit to the missing child.
Through him, a meeting was organised between Catherine Farrelly and Melissa and the HSE decided to place the child in residential care. In her 16 days in the centre, however, Melissa was absent as many nights as she was present.
A social care worker testified to continuing high levels of contact between Melissa and McManus and of finding a picture of him under Melissa’s pillow. The HSE obtained a court order prohibiting contact between Melissa and McManus.
Garda analysis of a phone owned by McManus would show that between July and October 2006, over 30 per cent of that phone’s traffic comprised contacts to or from the 14-year-old. By contrast, 12 per cent comprised contacts with his then-girlfriend, Angelique Sheridan.
Melissa’s behaviour deteriorated. She and another resident were suspected of drinking and sniffing gas and when gardaí tried to remove them from a house where they were found in bed with three older youths, the girls cut their arms with glass.
It was then decided to try temporary foster care. On the evening of September 13th, Melissa was taken to the Leitrim home of Jane McCall, who described her as a charming, polite and pretty girl. She seemed to be settling in, until 11.30 that night the child took a phone call which caused her to run out of the house in her bare feet and to knock on a stranger’s door, asking him to ring Ronnie McManus, her “father”.
McManus contacted the Garda and social services and Catherine Farrelly spent the night with Melissa in Manorhamilton Garda station. Next day, Farrelly persuaded her to try another foster family.
The social worker also bought new clothes for her in Dunnes Stores and took her to the HSE offices to get changed.
Some time though in the 15 minutes while Farrelly was out making arrangements, Melissa disappeared. She was seen heading towards the Rathbraughan estate. It was September 14th and the HSE’s last sighting of her.
Melissa survived another week, according to McManus’s younger daughter. She said the child was in their home on the evening of September 20th when gardaí called looking for her but she ran out the back door and jumped over the wall.
Only three people could say what happened in the next 24 hours. McManus chose not to take the stand.
In their evidence, Samantha and her younger sister agreed on certain key points – that they saw their father in his bed that night, lying behind Melissa with his arm around her neck and that he put her into a sleeping bag tied with a blue tie.
Samantha testified that Melissa’s face was purple, her lips blue and that she was making a high-pitched noise as she struggled to breathe. Her sister, who claimed to have seen the body in the sleeping bag before it was dumped, said that it had become half purple and half white.
They both told of how they helped their father to dispose of the body on the banks of the river Bonet, an area close to where the remains were found 15 months later, after a Garda search triggered by information from Samantha. However, the defence argued that the jury should focus on the divergences rather than similarities in the sisters’ accounts, which, Brendan Grehan SC said, were “radically inconsistent and inherently incredible”.
Earlier in the trial, while cross- examining the State Pathologist, he drew attention to the sisters’ evidence that when they saw their father lying in bed behind
Melissa in a “spoon” position, he had his arm across her throat, Mr Grehan wondered about that position “as a mechanism for causing death”.
Prof Cassidy said an arm on the neck or armlock could cause sudden death due to pressure on the sides of the neck. “Could it happen in a potentially friendly situation?” Mr Grehan asked counsel. Prof Cassidy replied : “It could happen without a person intending to cause harm.”