Mother waits five years for justice... in vain

SARAH FITZPATRICK is strong.

Five years after her son was beaten to death, four years after her husband died of a broken heart, she is coping.

But Mrs Fitzpatrick, a mother of six other children and 13 grandchildren, is also angry that she has been forced by the judicial system to wait half a decade for justice to be done. And then see the trial of two young men, accused of her son’s murder, collapse.

“I coped, I accepted it, hoping one day justice would be done. But it was not,” she said last night, in the front room of her terraced house in the north Dublin district of Finglas, just yards from where her 43-year-old 6’2” gentle giant of a son was found beaten and bleeding to death.

“I was so sad. I will never get over it, never, never.”

Two 20-year-old men were acquitted on the direction of a judge, who ruled certain evidence obtained in interviews with the then 15-year-olds could not be accepted.

“I know he was my son but he really was a gentleman. He was so kind. I got letters and letters from people that worked with him and knew him,” said Mrs Fitzpatrick. In the attic there are 2,000 Mass cards sent after his death in December 1998.

Exactly a year later, her husband, also Brian, died. “He never got over it. You could not even mention his name he took it that bad. Everybody thought he really went downhill after Brian’s death.”

Two trial dates were set and in June 2002 it looked like it was going ahead. The family were in court, as were witnesses and the accused. But there was no judge and the process of getting a trial date began again.

Over the years of waiting, Mrs Fitzpatrick has written to the Justice Minister, the Garda Commissioner and the Taoiseach. “I would never like somebody to be in my position again, having to wait five years for something to happen, to get justice or whatever.”

Michael Geoghan, of Northway Estate, Finglas, and Richard Bourke, of Sycamore Park, Finglas East, walked free from court yesterday, after spending their late teenage years with a murder charge hanging over them.

Mr Bourke said: “After five years, an innocent man. Finally proven not guilty. It’s brilliant. I feel sorry for his family and that. Sad thing.”

Geraldine Geoghan, mother of Michael, described his ordeal as terrible, saying he has been accused of an awful lot in five years.