Brother testifies at Dublin murder trial

The brother of a 30 year-old woman on trial for the murder of her eight year-old son today told how it was "inconceivable" to think that his sister would harm any of her three sons.

Mr Patrick Costello was giving evidence at the second day of the trial of Ms Jacqueline Costello. Ms Costello, formerly of Woodlawn Grove, Waterford has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her eldest son Robert Costello at Deerpark, Mullinavat on 28 October, 2000.

Mr Costello told Ms Miriam Reynolds SC for the prosecution that when gardai contacted his family home on 29 October to request someone to identify the deceased, his first thought was that his sister had harmed herself.

"I thought my sister had done something to hurt herself," Mr Costello said. "When they told me Jackie was implicated I was stunned, I thought Robert fallen down the stairs or something," he said.

Mr Costello had travelled from Dublin to Waterford on the afternoon the tragic events took place because he had received a number of phone calls in the early hours of the morning from his sister.

"She was very confused, very agitated and was crying down the phone," he said. During one phone call only hours before the little boy was strangled and suffocated, Mr Costello assured his young nephew not to worry.

"She kept handing the phone to Robert, I told him not to worry that I'd be down that night," he said.

He described his nephew as "a beautiful boy" and said he was "almost became like a little brother to me and my brother".

"Her being with her children...it was all she really lived for," he said. "It was inconceivable that she would ever harm them".

He said that since Ms Costello had broken up with her long-term partner in September 2000 that she was "trying to do too much at the one time".

The court heard that Ms Costello had tried to take an overdose in 1995 and on another occasion had tried to cut herself. She moved into a rented house in October 2000 with her three sons, Robert, Martin (3) and Stephen, who was just 22 months old.

The father of the accused told the court that his "biggest mistake" was turning Jacqueline away from the family home seven weeks before the incident. Mr Thomas Costello said that he and his wife could no longer cope with their daughter’s condition.

"I took the decision to refuse her because - at that stage we were wrecked from it all, we couldn’t go through it again," he said.

His wife, Mrs Irene Costello told the court that her daughter was "very frail and physically exhausted" at the time of the killing.

"Robert loved his mother, he loved Jackie, and she loved him," she said.

The defence is not contesting admissions made by the accused to the gardai following the death of Robert Costello. Ms Miriam Reynolds told the jury that the issue they must decide upon is whether Jacqueline Costello is guilty of murder or if she was insane at the time.

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