Father told son ‘don’t come back for funeral’

The son of a Cavan woman shot by her husband told a murder trial jury that his father said “I don’t want you to come home for my funeral” days before his mother was found dead in the family home.

Oliver Kierans, aged 57, of Drumbannon Bailieborough in Cavan has pleaded not guilty to murdering Patricia Kierans, aged 54, on September 5, 2013, at the same address.

He also pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of a 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun and not guilty to possession of the same shotgun with intent to endanger life.

Taking to the stand yesterday, Oliver Kierans Jr told Anthony Sammon, defending, that he had contacted his father from Australia on September 2, 2013.

“Every few weeks I would ring up to see how they were. It was Monday (September 2) Irish time and Tuesday morning in Sydney,” Mr Kierans Jr told the court.

“I rang dad and he sounded upset — it seemed as if he was crying. He was asking me ‘who’s this’ — he was drunk. He was telling me I was his first born and he loved me.

“He said Shane (brother) was going to Australia and he said he can’t get a hold of mammy. He said, ‘I dont want you to come home for my funeral’ — I said, ‘Don’t be so stupid’.”

In his closing speech, Michael O’Higgins, prosecuting, said the issue was whether the possibility of the shooting being an accident can be excluded. “One thing about intoxication and memory loss — lack of memory does not equate with lack of awareness and lack of responsibility,” he said.

“We’ve all done something by accident with a bad result. The natural human instinct where someone has been injured is to get help — it’s significant that Oliver Kierans did not get help.

“That is not behaviour consistent with someone who has accidentally killed someone. Neither is going to a public house with a concealed weapon and saying to Richie (barman), ‘There’ll be big news around the town tomorrow.’”

In his closing speech, Mr Sammon, defending, said it was a feature of the prosecution case that there was very little appreciation of the “real human beings involved in this dreadful family tragedy”.

“You have before you Oliver and Patricia’s children. This is an awful situation for this family. Patricia is dead — she was killed by Oliver Kierans’ gun.

“People who have gone through horrific trauma react in different ways,” Mr Sammon said.

“One has to bear in mind that Patricia Kierans had it in her mind that Oliver was having a relationship with (someone else’s) partner,” Mr Sammon said.

“This man is in a dreadful position. There is no doubt that his shotgun was discharged and no doubt that he killed his wife and mother of his children.

“However, the act and the mind need to come together. Bringing about the act without the guilty mind means there is not a criminal offence.”

Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly will give her charge to the jury on Monday.