Accused: Woman ‘stole a vial of my blood’

A man told his cousin he stabbed a Kilkenny woman to death because she had stolen a “vial of his blood”, “installed hidden cameras”, and put “black widow spiders” in his house, a jury has heard.

Shane Smyth, aged 29, of McGuinness House, Evans Lane, Kilkenny, has pleaded not guilty, by reason of insanity, to murdering Mairead Moran, aged 26, on May 8, 2014, at the Market Cross Shopping Centre in Kilkenny City.

A jury at the Central Criminal Court

has been told the facts of the case are not disputed and that two consultant psychiatrists prepared reports indicating that Mr Smyth was suffering from a form of psychosis at the time.

A cousin of Mr Smyth, Rosemary Grogan, was yesterday called by John O’Kelly, prosecuting. She told the court she was at home in Hazel Grove, Loughboy, Kilkenny, on May 8, 2014, with her partner and son when there was a knock on the door at 8.30pm.

Mr Smyth was at the door and he had a “wild look in his eyes and was pulling at his hair”, the court heard.

Ms Grogan told the court her cousin said he had done something “spastic” in the town, that he had stabbed his ex-girlfriend in her head and back. “Shane is a paranoid schizophrenic and I didn’t know if what he was saying was true or if it was all in his head. I was in shock, he had no blood on him or anything,” she said.

Mr Smyth told her Ms Moran had stolen a vial of his blood from his house, put black widow spiders in his house which had bitten him and left him paralysed, the court heard.

“He said he went down to Market Cross Shopping Centre to find out why she was doing all these things to him,” she told counsel.

When she asked him was Ms Moran alright, he told her she “must be as he could still feel her presence”.

Under cross-examination, Ms Grogan told Coleman Cody, defending, that a bag he had which contained green crystals was used “to catch fairies” and the fairies “warded off evil”.

The trial continues.