Murder accused 'tried to resuscitate victim'

A man accused of murdering his son frantically tried to resuscitate him during a 40-minute wait for an ambulance, an eyewitness told a murder trial jury at the Central Criminal court today.

The dead mans’ former partner spoke of the efforts made to save his life by his father as he lay dying on his caravan floor:

"He was leaning over his son, he was shouting, he looked me in the eyes, he was shouting ‘don’t go, come back, what have I done? I’m sorry’," a visibly upset Ms Kelly Richardson told the jury.

"Christopher was just lying there, eyes closed, lips a funny colour. Thomas was giving mouth to mouth, pumping his chest and checking to see was anything in his throat," she said.

"I was on the phone taking instructions, telling him what to do," she said and agreed with defence counsel Mr Patrick MacEntee that Mr Groome was trying to revive his son "as passionately as he could".

She told the jury that the ambulance was 40 minutes late and that the accused kept shouting "where's the effing ambulance?".

The 23-year-old was giving evidence under cross-examination on the third day of the trial of Mr Thomas Groome (aged 47) for the murder of his son Mr Christopher Groome (aged 19) at his caravan at Churchview Heights, Edenderry, Co Offaly on November 15, 1999. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Mr Daragh Connolly testified that he saw Ms Richardson and her partner arguing inside a nightclub on Sunday night, November14, 1999.

"They were arguing. Tommy came over and said not to be talking and to discuss it later. He just came over and said that to them and he walked off," said Mr Connolly.

He agreed with defence counsel Mr MacEntee that the accused had tried to make peace between the couple in the nightclub.

Mr Thomas Cummins and his wife Lorraine testified in court that they were woken up by "screaming" at 3.16am.

"There was screaming coming from the back of the houses, it was a loud screaming voice of a woman," said Mr Cummins. His wife Lorraine also told the court she was woken by "a loud screeching sound".

"It seemed to be coming from the residents of the caravans behind. It was the screeches that woke me and then there was a rumpus," she said.

Mr Tommy Heraty, a neighbour from Churchview Heights, told the court he "had a few drinks" with the accused and his son and girlfriend on the night in question: "We had two or three rounds of drinks. He was enjoying himself, chatting up some ladies" he said of the accused.

Mr Heraty confirmed Ms Richardson came knocking on his front door at 3.30am.

"She said that Tommy had stabbed Christopher and she was looking for a phone to ring the ambulance and the police."

Ms Richardson told the court earlier she had to run up town to ring from a public phone as the Heratys had no telephone.

She was seen running from the direction of the campsite by Mr Owen O'Neill, who happened to be driving his pregnant wife into Mullingar hospital around 3 am.

"I saw a blonde-haired girl and she was running out of the caravan site and she was going down towards Heratys," he said.

"She was running, she looked back twice over her shoulder and I said to my wife ‘there must be something going on in the campsite’," said Mr O’Neill.

A long-time resident of the halting site and neighbour of the accused, Mrs Mary Collins, testified that she gave the loan of a knife to the accused: "He asked me for the loan of a knife to peel a few potatoes."

Three black-handled knives were shown to Mrs Collins in court but she could not identify any of them.