Jury in Cork murder trial retire

A jury hearing the trial of a man charged with murdering his estranged partner in front of their son has retired to a hotel for the night and will continue their deliberations at Dublin’s Central Criminal Court in the morning.

Hadim Kedik, aged 33, with an address at 10 Connolly Street, Clonakilty, Co Cork, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Rose Patterson, aged 30, between April 11 and 12, last year.

Kedik, who came to Ireland from Turkey to work in a barbershop in Clonakilty in 2002, has admitted inflicting Ms Patterson’s injuries but says he never planned to kill her.

The jury retired at 4.24pm to consider their verdict in the case and were sent to a hotel for the night by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy at 6.35pm.

Mr Blaise O’Carroll for Kedik told them in his closing speech there was no question Kedik unlawfully killed Ms Patterson so their primary concern was a question of Kedik’s intent.

He said their were two possible defences in the case, provocation and self-defence, and if the jury found either they had to return a verdict of manslaughter.

Ms Patterson was found dead from eight stab wounds in Kedik’s flat on April 12. Kedik, who cut his own throat and wrists, was laying face down on the floor with their 21-month-old son asleep near his body.

The court heard she had left her two daughters from a previous relationship locked inside her home and taken their son to Kedik’s apartment for a court ordered access visit on April 11.

The couple had separated following the birth of their son and it had been necessary for Kedik to get a court order to obtain his twice-weekly visits.

The court heard Ms Patterson was late dropping off their son and Kedik was due to meet with another solicitor because, as Kedik told gardaí after the killing, Ms Patterson always came late.

The couple had also been arguing over their son’s injured finger, which Kedik claimed Ms Patterson was not treating.

Mr O’Carroll told the jury to look at the seven video interviews gardaí took with Kedik following the killing and count the number of times he said he never intended to kill Ms Patterson.

Mr John O’Kelly SC for the DPP had told the jury Kedik had planned to kill Ms Patterson, knew the injuries he inflicted were likely to cause her serious harm or death, and even after the stabbing left her to bleed and die.

“You couldn’t stab someone eight times without having the intention,” Mr O’Kelly said.

Mr O’Carroll asked the jury to take into account differences in culture and language and acknowledge the difficulties in obtaining exact translations, particularly in relation to letters Kedik wrote detailing his thoughts about killing himself and Ms Patterson.

While the prosecution says the letters were written on the Tuesday, Mr O’Carroll said there was evidence in a new translation of the video interview that Kedik said he had written at least one of them on the Wednesday, after Ms Patterson’s demise and before her body was discovered on the Thursday morning.

Mr O’Kelly told them the case was peculiar because it appeared Kedik had been thinking about killing Ms Patterson, because of the letters he had written.

The court heard Kedik had been in Mcilhatton’s pub on the Tuesday night where he overheard locals teasing the barman about having walked Ms Patterson home the previous Saturday.

“Is it anger over neglect or jealousy of a former girlfriend being walked home by someone else?” Mr O’Kelly asked the jury.

Mr O’Carroll told them there was no suggestion Ms Patterson was fearful of Kedik, he said. She had left her two daughters locked inside her home while she dropped her son off.

There was also evidence of the mundane situation before the killing where Ms Patterson changed the baby’s nappies in Kedik’s flat.

Kedik’s workmate Romazan Cansu told the court he had heard Ms Patterson yelling and screaming in Kedik’s flat that day telling him to “go to hell”.

Mr O’Carroll said Kedik had gone from “a tranquilty of mind to a war of emotion.”

Ms Patterson was so angry with Kedik she pushed him to the ground, he said.

She tried to grab the knife from the kitchen table but he grabbed it first, Mr O’Carroll said.

“Assume for the sake of argument that Rose had lost the plot and grabbed the knife, who knows what would have happened,” Mr O’Carroll said.

Kedik told gardaí he had lost his clear way of thinking, Mr O’Carroll said.

He told them if he had been thinking clearly he would not have cut himself and he would have called for help.

He also told them to look at photos of Kedik’s injuries and decide if he really had tried to kill himself.

The jury will continue its deliberations at 10.30am tomorrow.