Murder accused 'not a well boy'

The maternal grandparents of a youth accused of murdering his mother told a murder trial jury today that they had forgiven their grandson who "was not a well boy".

The accused, Damien Donnan, broke his mother's larynx while strangling her during a row over a cigarette, the Central Criminal Court heard.

Mr Donnan (20) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jennifer Donnan (42) at the family home at De Valera Park, Thomondgate, Limerick on 17 April 2000.

In his opening speech, prosecution counsel Patrick McCarthy Sc said that on the night of the killing, Mr Donnan had spent the evening watching TV.

His father Daniel Donnan, who was separated from the deceased, dropped in at around 10.15pm and stayed until 11.30pm. The accused went to bed but awoke sometime before 3am and went into his mother's bedroom looking for a cigarette.

Jennifer Donnan woke up, a row broke out and she was strangled, Mr McCarty told the jury. Shortly afterwards, the accused woke his nine-year-old brother, David, and told him to run to his grandparents for help as he had killed their mother.

The deceased's mother, Mrs Frances Daly, said David Donnan arrived at her house at around 3.15am on 17 April. He told her: "Damien is killing Mammy" or "He's killed Mammy'" - she was not sure which.

She drove with another daughter, Olivia and her boyfriend to De Valera Park and went upstairs. "I saw Damien standing on the banisters," the witness told the prosecution. She asked him: "What did you do?" He replied: "She started it Nana."

Mrs Daly said her daughter Jennifer had a good relationship with Damien but that he was not well and had received psychiatric care. "Damien to me was a very sick child," she said.

The witness said he spent his time staring at the television inches from the screen, had cut himself off from his friends and was refusing to leave the house.

She recalled one incident when his mother had sent him to the shops. He returned saying "I can't go, I can't go" and refused to go anymore.

Cross-examined by defence counsel, Patrick Gageby SC, she said the accused "loved his mother".

Asked if his parents' marital break-up had affected the children, the witness agreed that Damien "had not taken it too well". She also agreed that that night, after killing his mother "he only wanted Nana".

Mrs Daly told the jury that in October 1999, she had taken her grandson to New York to see if the holiday would do him good as he was becoming very withdrawn.

Almost as soon as he got there he wanted to return home and an early flight was arranged. He bought his mother a watch in the airport on the return journey.

Mr Patrick Daly, the accused's grandfather, gave evidence of having visited his daughter, the deceased, at around 7.30pm on the night of the killing.

He was worried that "Damien wasn't too well". Asked by the prosecution how the accused was acting, Mr Daly said "he was very restless."

The depression "that came over him was like a shadow", that "swallowed him up". "I'm very sorry for him," he added.

Ms Olivia Daly, the deceased's sister, told the jury that when she arrived at her sister's home on the night of the killing, she ran upstairs to her bedroom. "I saw Jennifer on the ground facing the door and I knew she was dead," she told the jury.

The witness's mother, Frances Daly, then tried to enter the bedroom. The witness said she "pushed her back down."

Asked about the relationship between the accused and his mother, she told the jury "he was a great kid, a lovely kid." His parents had a "love/hate" relationship and "Damien was in the middle of it."

Questioned by the prosecution, Ms Daly agreed that some time earlier, the accused had tried to choke his younger brother David. The accused had a grudge against the family dog and believed it was the dog he was choking, not his brother.

Shortly before Christmas 1999, the accused was admitted to a psychiatric ward of the Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle. He was there for "a couple of days" and his father took him out on Christmas Eve. The witness said her nephew needed help.

The trial continues tomorrow.