A CO WICKLOW farmer suffering from Parkinson’s syndrome has been found guilty of murdering his older brother in a row over their mother’s burial wishes.
Cecil Tomkins (63), of New Lodge Nursing Home, Stocking Lane, Rathfarnham, Dublin, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Walter Tomkins (66) at Cronlea, Shillelagh on July 1st, 2010.
He was not present when the jury of nine men and three women returned a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder after five hours of deliberation following the seven-day trial. His lawyers had excused him the previous day, saying he was unwell.
Consultant psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital Dr Paul O’Connell told the court it was his opinion Cecil had dementia, which “impaired his judgment”.
Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, said he was concerned that Tomkins be present when sentence was passed.
Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan remanded him on continuing bail for sentencing on March 26th.
The bachelor told gardaí he had shot his brother Walter, who was also a bachelor, in the hallway of the house they shared because he had not followed his mother’s burial wishes. Tomkins told a consultant psychiatrist: “I got the gun and shot him. I regretted it the moment I did it.”
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Khalid Jabbar gave evidence in the trial that Walter Tomkins died from a single shotgun wound to the chest.
The trial heard just days before the shooting, on June 28th, their mother Bella Tomkins had been buried locally in Aghowle with her late husband, who died of a heart attack in 1999. The farm had been divided into three before their father died, the court heard.
Bella continued living with Walter and Cecil in the house for the next 11 years, the court heard.
Her original wish was to be buried with family in Kilcormac, Co Wexford, but she had later reserved a plot in Gorey in 2001 and left a letter outlining her wishes and money in an envelope to cover the cost of her burial there.
Garda Christopher Murray asked Tomkins when he arrived at the farmhouse what had happened and cautioned him he would write down what he told him, and Tomkins told him there was a “row” over where his mother had been buried.
“There was a row. My mother wanted to be buried in Kilcormac or Gorey but she was buried in Aghowle. I shot Walter because he buried her in Aghowle,” he said.
“All the graves were full in Kilcormac, that’s why she wanted to be buried in Gorey,” he told gardaí in an interview.
“My mother didn’t want to be buried with my father; she mustn’t have gotten on with him,” he said. “They would see it as a stigma if they weren’t buried together – they were married for 54 years.”