A 26-year-old Dublin man who killed his mother two years ago was jailed for life yesterday by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
Moses O'Connor, Castlebyrne Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to the murder of Regina O'Connor at the same address between the dates of November 23rd and 26th, 2005.
Mrs O'Connor, originally from Rwanda, was well known in Blackrock for her charity work and gardening.
She had a barring order out against her son but he was living with her at the time of the murder.
Mrs O'Connor had made a will in which it was stated that Moses O'Connor would receive most of her money when he turned 25, but under the strict condition that he was drug-free.
O'Connor killed his mother shortly before his 25th birthday. Det Insp Cummins told the court that a copy of the will was found in O'Connor's room after the murder.
The court heard that Regina O'Connor (46) died a very violent death.
She suffered stab wounds to her back, neck and arm, her larynx was fractured and 10 of her ribs were broken.
Det Insp Martin Cummins told the court that Moses O'Connor, who had 26 previous convictions, was "one of the most disturbed people" he had ever seen in Garda custody.
Regina O'Connor came to Ireland after meeting her husband-to-be, Andrew O'Connor, in Rwanda in the mid-1980s. He was a widower in his early 70s who had decided to take a trip around the world.
Det Insp Cummins said that Moses O'Connor, born in Kenya, was a talented sportsman who developed problems in secondary school, getting involved in drugs and crime and spending time in foster care.
In 2005, at the end of a prison term, he went to live with his mother. In January that year she took out a barring order against him.
Det Insp Cummins said that O'Connor's relationship with his mother had "totally broken down".
The inspector said that Mrs O'Connor had developed liver problems in 2005 and was attending Tallaght Hospital three days a week for dialysis.
On Thursday, November 24th, an ambulance arrived at her home to pick her up but there was no answer.
Det Insp Cummins said that two gardaí then called to the house and met Moses O'Connor there.
They asked him if his mother was at home. He said that she wasn't and that she had gone down the country with a friend.
The gardaí then asked O'Connor if they could look around the house. They did so but saw nothing untoward. They also looked into the bedroom, which was not well lit.
The following day gardaí again called to the house. Det Insp Cummins told the court that one of the gardaí observed that O'Connor appeared edgy.
Gardaí were called the next day by a Tallaght Hospital ambulance crew, who were concerned about Mrs O'Connor because not turning up for dialysis treatment twice in one week would have left her in a critical condition.
However, despite knocking at her house door, gardaí could not get in. A neighbour then called to help.
Moses O'Connor allowed the neighbour into the house, where the body of Regina O'Connor was found on the bed, covered in bedclothes.
Det Insp Cummins told the court that, from the outset, Moses O'Connor was "very perturbed, confused and irrational".
He said that O'Connor had played League of Ireland soccer at one point, that he had talent, "but somewhere between primary school and secondary school, his aggression began to show".
"Once he went into prison, he didn't come out any better," said Det Insp Cummins, who added that O'Connor had experimented with most types of drugs and that, for much of 2005, he had been living rough, and that he "didn't have life easy".