AN 83-YEAR-old pensioner, who was found dead and tied up at his home in Co Westmeath, was beaten to death and robbed of cash, the prosecution claimed yesterday at the trial of the man accused of his murder.
Noel Cawley (47), of no fixed abode but with a previous address in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Christy Hanley (83), at Bridge Street, Kilbeggan, on May 21st last year.
He has also pleaded not guilty to robbing Mr Hanley of an unknown sum of money at the same address on the same date.
Opening the prosecution case at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, Alex Owens SC said Mr Hanley was a bachelor who lived alone in “some disarray” in his house in Kilbeggan. He was a “well-known character at the races, where he bought and sold horses”.
“He was occasionally observed with large amounts of cash.” Mr Owens said Mr Hanley did not drink alcohol but did socialise in two pubs in Kilbeggan; the Black Kettle and the Saddler’s Inn.
The jury heard that the evidence will be that the accused, Mr Cawley, arrived in Kilbeggan on the day of the alleged murder and robbery after having spent the night in Mullingar with his ex- girlfriend and her cousins.
Mr Owens said a man answering to the description of Mr Cawley went into both the Black Kettle and the Saddler’s Inn and was present when Mr Hanley obtained €400 in cash for coins from the barman of one of those pubs.
He said the prosecution’s case was that Mr Hanley returned home some time before 6pm and that, at about that time, a man who the prosecution says is Mr Cawley was seen “lurking” around the area of Bridge Street.
Mr Owens said that this man entered Mr Hanley’s house and left approximately 20 minutes later, before flagging down a lift from people called the Slaters. “He was in something of a panic.”
The evidence will be that this man jumped out of the van some distance down the road, having asked for a lift to Tullamore.
Mr Owens told the jurors they will hear that this man then got a lift from a man named Ian Dwyer, who observed what appeared to be blood on his passenger’s trousers, and that the blood “was explained away by some sort of activity with an animal”. The jury will hear that the man who emerged from Mr Hanley’s house had a large amount of cash. The prosecution case is that this man didn’t have any of this cash earlier in the day.
“The prosecution case is that you can infer what happened in the house of Mr Hanley is that the assailant went in for the purposes of robbing Mr Hanley of cash. He got the cash and killed him, intended to kill him.”
Mr Owens said the jury will hear that Mr Hanley was “beaten severely” during the 20 minutes between 6pm and 6.20pm.