A PUBLICAN accused of murdering his wife and an 18-month-old baby girl in a fire received a Mass card a fortnight after the fatal fire with the words "ha, ha" and "burned" inserted, a murder trial jury heard yesterday.
Mrs Emer Farrell said a doctor had to be called after Francis McCann opened the Mass card at her home. She said that Mr McCann had been staying with her and her husband at Butterfield Crescent, Rathfarnham, Dublin, and on September 18th, 1992, had opened post addressed to his public house, The Cooperage, in Blessington, Co Wicklow. One of the items was a Mass card. The words "ha, ha" were inserted on the card and the word "burned" was in place of a priest's signature.
Mrs Farrell said that when she came into the kitchen Mr McCann was on the floor and she called his doctor.
On September 21st, when Mr McCann was due to move out of her house, she found a welcome home card lying on the mat. She opened it and saw the words "lack of pigs" from a newspaper cutting in the card.
Mrs Farrell said: "I was devastated. We moved out of our home that night."
She was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court on the 10th day of the trial of Francis McCann. Mr McCann (36) has denied the murders of his wife, Esther (36), and baby, Jessica, at the family home at Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham, on September 4th, 1992.
The jury has heard that Jessica was a blood relative of the accused man but not a child of his marriage to Esther. The prosecution has claimed that Mr McCann arranged the fatal fire because he did not want to tell his wife why the Adoption Board had refused the couple's application to adopt Jessica.
Det Garda Patrick Treacy of Tallaght said he interviewed the accused man at Rathfarnham Garda Station on September 5th, 1992. Mr McCann said he had received threatening phone calls which he had reported to the gardai in Blessington and Rathfarnham.
He also told gardai of finding the word "burn" beside the pub's entry in the telephone directory in the pub. The entry had been circled. Mr McCann said he found the entry after a man whom he did not know had been in the pub on Wednesday, September 2nd, asking questions. He said he did not tell his wife about the threats because she was usually on her own at nights.
On the night of September 3rd, 1992, he had been working in the pub and was telephoned by his wife who told him that she had discovered a mark on the back door of his house. Mr McCann telephoned the gardai in Blessington, who told him to go home and check. He left the pub, arriving home shortly after 10 p.m.
His wife was in the kitchen and Jessica was in bed. He gave Jessica two bottles and then he inspected the glass on the back door. He found a mark in the shape of a square and told the gardai in Rathfarnham. They told him somebody would be around in the morning and he told his wife.
He then watched a film on TV with Esther and left the house at 10.55 p.m. He said he arrived at the pub before 11.30 p.m. and after his barman left at 1 a.m. he stayed on to do the cash. He left the pub between 1.20 and 1.30 a.m. on September 4th and drove straight home. As he came into Butterfield Avenue he saw people on the road.
He thought it was a party but then he saw his house on fire. He jumped out of the car and people stopped him running into the house. He collapsed and was put into an ambulance.
Earlier, Mr Liam Fleury of the Forensic Science Laboratory told Mr Barry White SC, for the defence, that the laboratory was "on a par with the best in any other country". He rejected suggestions that he had kept an inadequate case file in relation to the fire.