Dead man's partner's daughter 'asks for him every day', court told

The partner of a man beaten to death with a pick axe in West Dublin has told the Central Criminal Court that her four-year-old daughter asks her every day "when is daddy coming back?".

Michelle Mahony made an emotional victim impact statement to the Central Criminal Court about the "devastating" loss of her partner, Mr John Murphy two years ago.

Father-of-three Terence Keogh (aged 38) of Pine Brook, Blanchardstown admitted the manslaughter of Mr Murphy (aged 29) of Carne Court, Hartstown, Dublin 15 at Sheepmoor Grove on April 15th 2003.

Ms Mahony said her daughter, Chloe "wakes up every night to see if I am in my bed". Ms Mahony, who was living with her daughter and Mr Murphy in his family home, told the court she still lives with her partner's parents.

Chloe she says "thinks I won’t come back" if Ms Mahony has to leave her. "She couldn’t face the fact if I am not there", she said. "I told her that her daddy fell off a horse. I can’t tell her the truth", Ms Mahony said.

When she saw her boyfriend in the hospital morgue, Ms Mahony told the court that she "couldn’t even kiss him to say goodbye. His head had swelled to three times its size", she said tearfully.

"What about our life, what about Chloe and me?" she emotionally asked the court. John, she said, "is not coming back and she (Chloe) can’t understand".

Prosecuting barrister Mr Paul Coffey told the court that "after midnight on 15 April 2002, the accused together with another person used a pick axe on the deceased" at Sheepmore Grove Blanchardstown "inflicting fatal injuries" to Mr Murhpy. The father-of-one was pronounced dead at 3.40am at James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown.

Detective Sgt Liam Kelly of Blanchardstown garda station told the court that a row broke out in the Buda bar, across the road from the Blanchardsown shopping centre, which "spilt onto the street".

The deceased and his brother Mark Murphy, the detective said, seemed to be "getting the better of the accused". The fight he said was recorded on a hand-held camera.

The accused, Detective Sgt Kelly said "retrieved a pick axe handle from his car and chased the Murphy brothers by foot and then possibly by car" to Sheepmore housing estate, 600 yards away.

The Murphy’s were chased down to 7 Sheepmore, Detective Sgt Kelly told the court. "They tried to get into the house" and were "cornered", he said.

The pick axe, the court heard was used to strike the deceased around the head and this lasted five minutes, prosecuting counsel said.

"The whole area was covered in blood", Detective Sgt Kelly said.

The deceased, the court heard had "severe head injuries" with an "open fracture to the skull with brain tissue in the wound". Prof John Harbison, Mr Coffey SC said, died as a result of a "laceration to the brain" and haemorraging "due to multiple blows to the head consistent with a pick axe".

The accused, Det Sgt Kelly said has 36 previous convictions including burglary, larceny and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Defence counsel, Mr Gerry O’Brien SC, told the court that a member of the Murphy family approached the Keogh’s in the Buda bar and accused Mr Keogh of being a rapist and a child molester. Det Sgt Kelly said "there were statements which said that, yes". The court heard that these allegations were unfounded.

Sentencing continues this afternoon before Mr Justice Paul Carney.