Mother gives evidence in Robert Holohan murder trial

Wayne O'Donoghue, the man accused of murdering eleven-year-old Robert Holohan, stood beside the boy’s mother hours after his death and told her not to worry.

That was the evidence given by Robert’s mother, Majella Holohan, at the Central Criminal Court in Cork where Wayne O’Donoghue, aged 21, admits manslaughter but denies murdering Robert.

Mrs Holohan rang Wayne O’Donoghue that afternoon at around 5.30 p.m. on January 4 and asked him if he had seen.

“He said he had not seen him since half past two that afternoon,” she said, and added that she did not notice anything abnormal or strange about the accused at that time.

Later that evening, as the search for Robert was extended, neighbours including Wayne O’Donoghue were in the Holohan home.

She said the accused said to her, “Don’t worry. You will find him alright. I’ll try him on my mobile.” She said he rang her son’s number and put the phone up to his ear and said there was no answer. “He tried to ring two or three times,” she testified.

“Robert adored Wayne. He looked up to him as if he was an older brother. We never had any problem with any of the O’Donoghue family,” she said, adding later in her evidence that the families could not have been closer.

She was astonished when the gardaí told her that Wayne had admitted killing her son.

She said the accused often played football with her son, he made him a tree house, he took him for ice cream treats in McDonalds, rented out DVDs for him and sometimes played Playstation games with him.

She recalled thanking the accused during the search for her son and remarked to him that he was doing so much to help. He identified Robert’s BMX bike to the gardai.

Never breaking down in tears, Mrs Holohan’s voice did show signs of cracking at various stages during the evidence.

“He was very extrovert. He loved GAA, loved horses. He was an outdoor person, an energetic boy… He loved cycling his bike and going on his roller blades. Any eleven-year-old would do the same.

“I would say he was a replica of myself. He loved life. He loved animals. He thought everyone was beautiful and everything was wonderful. He was full of the joys of life. No worries or anything like that. He was a typical eleven-year-old,” she said.

Mrs Holohan said he was on daily medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), a condition described as very mild in Robert’s case by a leading expert in the field, Professor Michael Fitzgerald.

He was off medication during the holidays and she tended to give it to him on schooldays.