Jury retires in murder and stabbing trial

A jury has retired in the trial of a Dublin man accused of the murder of his ex-girlfriend and the stabbing of her mother in December two years ago.

Declan Burke, aged 29, with a last address on the South Circular Road, Dublin 8, has denied the murder of Ms Jennifer Wilkinson, aged 24, at her home in the Rise, Boden Park, Ballyboden, near Rathfarnham, Dublin on December 13 2000.

Burke has also denied assault causing serious harm by stabbing Mrs Mary Wilkinson, aged 57, at the house in the Rise, Boden Park, on the same date.

The jury of seven men and five women retired today. Mr Justice Barry White told them that there were three possible verdicts on the first count of murder: guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, or guilty but insane.

Burke’s defence has argued that he was either legally insane or lacking the intent to kill or cause serious injury at the time of the stabbings.

Mr Justice White said the prosecution case was that Declan Burke was "someone who was bad, who killed Jennifer in cold blood", while the defence case was that he was mad, and even if he was not mad, that he was someone who was not capable of forming an intention to kill or to cause serious injury.

The judge said the jury should not be swayed by feelings of sympathy or abhorrence at the account heard during the trial of the accused man’s past as a victim of years of sexual abuse at the hands of his father, a convicted child abuser.

The case has so far lasted seven days in the Central Criminal Court.