Mother refused psychiatric help before murder

A 30 year-old mother of three who strangled and suffocated her eight year-old son to death refused to be admitted to a psychiatric ward just hours before the tragic incident.

A jury at the Central Criminal Court were told today that they must decide if Jacqueline Costello is guilty of the murder of her son Robert Costello, or if she was insane at the time of the killing.

Ms Costello, formerly of Woodlawn Grove, Waterford denies the murder of the young boy at

Deerpark, Mullinavat on 28 October, 2000.

Opening the trial, Ms Miriam Reynolds SC for the prosecution told the court that on the morning of Robert's death, Ms Costello agreed to go be taken to hospital by her recently-estranged partner, Stephen O'Keeffe.

When they got to the hospital, Ms Costello got "quite upset". "She was seen by a doctor and a nurse, but panicked and refused to go in and ran off," Ms Reynolds

said.

"Stephen O'Keeffe pleaded with her to go back, but she wouldn't," Ms Reynolds said. Mr O'Keeffe was "worn out" and "had no option" but to bring Ms Costello home to the house she was renting in Mullinavat.

She had been living there for a short time with her three children Robert (8), Martin (3)

and Stephen (22 months) having moved out of the house she shared with Mr O'Keeffe one month earlier following "some difficulties in the relationship", Ms Reynolds said.

One week before the incident the accused had contacted an elderly couple from the locality who were Jehovah's witnesses.

Mrs Maria Ramshaw gave evidence that on the day of the incident she called to Ms Costello's house in Mullinvat with her husband and found the accused in a "very distressed" state in the back garden.

"I saw her standing in the garden, she was shouting and crying, she was very distressed and upset," she said. When she became aware of their presence she invited them in and said "come in then,

you might as well see the evidence".

The Ramshaw's went into the kitchen of the house and Mrs Ramshaw said she could see someone lying on the floor in the living room. "She seemed calm enough, she just stood there," she said.

Ms Costello told her not to let her three-year old see and then went out and tried to lock herself in the

garage.

The couple went in to the living room and saw the little boy lying on his back with a kitten sitting on his chest. "It made me feel terrible, he was lying very still, his legs spread out and his arms up...with bubbles of froth coming out of his mouth," she said. Mrs Ramshaw tried to resuscitate

the young boy, but could find no pulse.

"There was an awful lot of tablets and bottles of 7-up lying around...she told us not to drink the 7-Up as it was poisonous," she said.

Her husband contacted an ambulance and the gardai were called. Ms Costello came back into the house and in a distressed state she said she was going to kill herself "She kept repeating 'I'm only 27 years old'", the witness said.

Ms Reyolds told the court that when gardai asked Ms Costello what had happened to the child, she replied, "I killed him". "I just wanted him to take the sleeping tablets, he said 'no fucking way', so I caught him by the throat and killed him.

"She cried bitterly and showed the tablets to the gardai," she said.

"You must decide not whether Robert Costello was killed by Jacqueline Costello, but whether or not she is guilty of murder.... or whether she is guilty but insane at the time," Ms Reynolds told the jury.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of four men and eight women.