Eamonn Lillis has told his murder trial at the Central Criminal Court that he was a major participant in the fight that led to his wife’s fatal injuries.
The 52-year-old TV advert producer was giving evidence on the ninth day of his trial for the alleged murder of Celine Cawley at their home on December 15, 2008.
He has pleaded not guilty to murdering her at Rowan Hill, Windgate Road, Howth while their daughter was at school. The 46-year-old died of blunt force trauma to the head after receiving three blows.
Mr Lillis had said he found an intruder attacking her on their patio but last week admitted that there was no intruder.
The defendant told Brendan Grehan SC, defending, that everything was normal in his house that morning until a sudden row over forgetfulness and chores turned nasty.
He said his wife was wearing rubber gloves at the kitchen sink when he returned from walking their three dogs. She asked him to make tea but he said he wanted to clear dog ‘poo’ from the patio first and he walked outside.
“Celine called after me had I given the meal worms to the robin. I said I’d forgotten. She said it was bloody typical of me to keep forgetting things,” he said. “We argued about it back and forth. I shouted some abuse.”
He said that he had turned away when his wife followed him out, and he saw her getting up off the ground out of the corner of his eye. She was picking up a brick and he presumed she’d fallen on it.
“She thrust the brick at me,” he said. “I said something rude to her and walked away. She came flying back out and said that was typical of me: ‘You always walk away.’” He said things then turned nasty and they began screaming at each other.
He said he tried to grab the brick from her but his glove fell off and his fingernail got torn off.
“I was extremely angry. I pushed her again, quite hard, against the corner of the living room window,” he recalled. “She let an almighty scream.”
He said this might have been because she had banged her head but he did not see this.
“She grabbed my hand and bit my finger. She wouldn’t let go,” he testified. He said she was twisting her head from side to side while biting his right little finger.
“I hit her on her forehead to stop her moving,” he said “I screamed at her. It was extremely painful”.
He said the row ended when she let go of his finger. He said he then picked up the brick that was near her head and threw it a foot or two away.
Mr Lillis said he told the paramedics who arrived that there’d been a burglar because he’d already told the operator this and also because he didn’t want people to know that their injuries were from a row they’d had.
“I saw them picking her up and bringing her to the ambulance. I presumed she was ok. I presumed that if someone was dead they were not moved,” he said, when asked why he continued this story to the gardaí.
“I presumed Celine would say the same thing as well so I kept with the story.” He said that when he found out his wife had died, he went into complete shock and didn’t know what to do.
“I was trying to deny what had happened myself. I didn’t want people to know we’d had a fight,” he said in explanation of a lengthy statement he gave gardai about a burglar. “I just got paralysed. I’m sorry.” He was asked why he’d kept the story of the ‘phantom attacker’ even when arrested.
“Having said it before, I’d boxed myself into a corner,” he said. “All that week I’d been surrounded by all of Celine’s family and friends. I felt trapped. I didn’t see any way out.” “I’d never been in a fight in my life even, especially in a situation like this,” he said when asked why it took him until January to tell anyone the truth. “My wife had died. I didn’t want to accept it. I couldn’t find any way of explaining to people what happened.” However, he said he felt he had to tell his daughter.
Later, Mary Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, said that in this fight, his wife was flat lining with serious blood loss from three head wounds, while he needed only a bandage on his finger.
She asked him why he was in such a hurry to hide the clothes when his daughter wouldn’t be home from school for four hours. Would he not find a better hiding place when he went to meet his girlfriend that morning, she asked.
“I just wanted to get it out of the way to get back downstairs to Celine. I’d no intention of leaving the house after that happened,” he said.
The trial continues before Mr Justice White and a jury of six women and six men.