Jury see video interviews in Cavan murder trial

A jury hearing the trial of a man charged with murdering a Cavan woman by stabbing her to death on her front lawn, has been shown garda video interviews conducted with the accused after the killing.

Jury see video interviews in Cavan murder trial

A jury hearing the trial of a man charged with murdering a Cavan woman by stabbing her to death on her front lawn, has been shown garda video interviews conducted with the accused after the killing.

Brendan McGahern, aged 28, with an address at Corlismore in Co Cavan, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Amy Farrell at Glenlara, Cavan, on January 20, 2006, but guilty to her manslaughter by way of diminished responsibility.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, represented by Mr Alex Owens SC, has refused to accept his plea.

Mr Justice Paul Carney warned the jury they were only seeing the videos to observe and assess the accused man's demeanour.

McGahern had contended he was labouring under a mental disorder at the time of the killing that diminished his responsibility.

In the first video, McGahern can be seen wearing a black jersey with his hands clasped in front of him, occasionally taking sips from a cup as Gardaí interview him about Miss Farrell’s death.

He states his date of birth and acknowledges he understands what is happening at the start of the interview, stating he has been arrested for assault.

He then answers “no comment” to all the questions asked of him in relation to Amy Farrell’s death, half way through asking for a cigarette and a cup of milk.

He is asked whether his friend Brendan Kelly asked him to “do the job” on Miss Farrell.

The court has heard earlier Miss Farrell was acquainted with Kelly and McGahern and had given evidence against Kelly in the Virginia District Court the day before her killing.

McGahern had been present and Kelly, who had assaulted Miss Farrell and stolen two of her cars, had been sentenced to 16 months in prison.

“The reason you were at Glenlara was to sort out Amy Farrell in relation to what evidence she gave against Brendan Kelly,” McGahern is asked.

“No comment,” he replies.

At the completion of the Garda interview McGahern refuses to sign the written copy of the interview saying he cannot write.

Gardaí ask McGahern to make a mark on the copy and he refuses.

Mr Justice Carney stopped the jury viewing the second interview part way through, telling them the questioning had become emotive and there was a danger if it continued they might feel the questions become evidence against the accused.

He said “no comment” answers given by the accused were evidence of nothing at all.

This morning, the court heard from Brendan McGahern senior who said his son was nicknamed “crazy”.

“His friends called him crazy I don’t know why,” he told defence counsel Mr David Kennedy SC.

He said his son was very easily led.

McGahern’s mother Eileen told Mr Owens the umbilical cord had been wrapped around McGahern’s neck during his birth cutting off oxygen.

As a baby he was good she said but his problems began when he was a toddler.

A Priest at his first school said McGahern always had a blank stare on his face.

He was eventually put into a special needs class where his mother said he did well but when he reached secondary school he was forced back into mainstream schooling because the school, St Patrick’s College, had done away with special classes.

“He was terribly bullied at that school so we had to take him out,” Mrs McGahern said.

McGahern could not read or write so, she said, she did not see the point in buying school books for him but the school suggested she should so the other children would not know McGahern was illiterate.

Mrs McGahern said her son eventually went into Youthreach, a programme for early school leavers, where he got into bad company.

She said they were travellers and others who used to beat him up.

“I suppose he thought I can’t win with them so I might as well join them.”

He would go drinking and his parents often had to pick him up, the court heard.

“Because of his disability the drink made him worse,” Mrs McGahern said saying her son could be aggressive.

McGahern went into rehab but they could not control him either, she said and he eventually started spending time with a friend who took him stealing and moved on to breaking into houses.

“Stealing cigarettes from shops and he smashed a car when he was drunk and we helped out and paid money for that but he still done time for it anyway,” she said.

Under cross-examination by Mr Kennedy she began quietly crying as she told the court he son had no friends and was constantly teased.

“They called him rehab and stupid and different things,” she said.

She said they had tried everywhere to get their son help.

She said he wet his bed and was afraid of the dark up until about two years ago.

The trial continues tomorrow,

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