PROSECUTION:MARY ELLEN Ring SC, prosecuting, said that this was an opportunistic murder, not some sort of accident.
“The prosecution says that in this case, an opportunity presented itself on the morning of the 15th of December, 2008, on the patio, and Eamonn Lillis took up a brick and hit Celine Cawley three times,” she said in her closing speech.
She said he then went upstairs and “calmly, in a controlled fashion, washed his hands and his watch, changed his clothes . . . had the wit to get camera gear, put everything in a bag and under items in the attic”.
She said that it was only when he found his wife dying that panic set in.
Ms Ring said that intention was the issue in murder cases and that although remorse often followed, it did not undo intention. “The intention when he was with the brick in his hand and applying moderate force to his wife’s head; that’s what you have to look at.
“This is not a man who went berserk and lost control of himself. It was an opportunity that presented itself. He took that opportunity and caused the damage that led to Celine Cawley’s death.”
Ms Ring pointed to paramedic Stephen O’Reilly’s testimony that Ms Cawley’s body seemed colder than expected when he attended her, in light of the time the 999 call was made.
She said paramedic Paul Canavan had slipped twice but had not fallen and hurt himself, did not need medical assistance and was able to continue with his work.
She recalled that Mr Lillis had testified that he found his wife mostly on her back with her limbs facing sideways. This was contrary to what he told the emergency operator and gardaí, she said.
“Dr Curtis was clear that the wounds were consistent with having been caused by the application of blunt force with a solid implement,” she said, referring to Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis. “He didn’t think they were caused by one or three separate falls.”
She recalled that the pathologist also said that if she had fallen on her back, he would have expected more injuries to her back, even if she hit her head first. There would also be marks on her back if she were pushed against the window edge, she suggested.
She said there were two horizontal, gaping wounds to the back of Ms Cawley’s head, but the window edge that her husband said she might have hit was vertical.
The true verdict in this case, she concluded, was that Mr Lillis murdered his wife.