Mrs Kearney was 'seeking marital advice' before death

A woman, whose husband is on trial for her murder, was seeking advice on marital separation the day before her death, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Brian Kearney (aged 50) with an address at Carnroe, Knocknashee, Goatstown, Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, Siobhan Kearney (aged 38) on February 28, 2006 – his 49th birthday.

Ms Kearney was found strangled in her bedroom that morning.

Ms Philomena Daly, who was working at the Citizen’s Advice Centre, Dundrum Town Centre, Sandyford Rd in 2006, told the court that on February 27, a woman called, seeking an appointment for advice on a marital separation.

She said that the woman gave her name as Siobhan Kearney.

Ms Daly told the court that she gave the deceased woman an appointment for March 9 that year but that she asked for an earlier date. She said that she told Siobhan that no earlier dates were available.

Earlier, a sister of Siobhan Kearney told the court that she first met Brian Kearney at the afters of her wedding in 1989.

Aisling McLaughlin told prosecuting counsel Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC that Siobhan and Brian Kearney were engaged in 1995 but split up the same year, breaking off the engagement. Siobhan subsequently moved to Clontarf in Dublin, where she established a catering business before moving to Blackrock.

Ms McLaughlin said that her sister and Mr Kearney reunited and then married in January 2002 and that a son was born six months later. The married couple bought a hotel in Spain, the Hotel Salvia, which they opened in March 2003. Siobhan, a qualified chef, was involved in both administration and kitchen duties, she said.

Ms McLaughlin told Mr Vaughan Buckley that on the morning Siobhan’s body was found, she drove another sister, Brighid McLaughlin, to the house in Goatstown. She said they arrived at approximately 10.45am and that half an hour later, Mr Kearney arrived.

“I told him to get out, but my mother told me to stop,” Ms McLaughlin told the jury.

She said that she than heard Mr Kearney say to Brighid McLaughlin “how terrible it was, especially after Michael’s death”.

The court heard on Monday that Brighid McLaughlin’s husband, Michael, died on July 4, 2003.

Ms McLaughlin continued: “He [Mr Kearney] was sitting down after that and proceeded to breathe heavily.”

She told the jury that Mr Kearney then “stopped his heavy breathing and gave clear instructions to the family about toys [his son] would need.

“When he was finished giving his instructions, he resumed breathing very heavily,” she said.

The son had earlier been taken to Mr Kearney’s parents’ house.

Ms McLaughlin told Mr Patrick Gageby SC, defending, that her sister voluntarily admitted herself to St John of God hospital in December1999 for two weeks because she was “worn out from working so hard”. She had not been living with Mr Kearney for a number of years at this time, she said.

In response, Mr Gageby said to Ms McLaughlin that it was “quite incorrect” for anyone to suggest to the jury that Siobhan was in St John of Gods because of the “stress of living with Brian Kearney”.

Ms McLaughlin said that she could not say.

Anne Clohessy, a pharmacist, told the jury that she had known Siobhan Kearney for eight years and that they would meet two or three times a week.

Ms Clohessy told Mr Vaughan Buckley that she met Siobhan the day before she died.

She said she met Siobhan and her son at approximately 5pm at the top of Grafton St. They went for a cup of coffee and, afterward, walked to Ms Clohessy’s apartment on Wolfe Tone St, where they had dinner. They were joined by Ms Clohessy’s partner, Julian Lawlor.

She said that Siobhan was in “her usual positive form” and that they “chatted about [her son], which school he was to be enrolled in”.

Mr Vaughan Buckley asked Ms Clohessy if Siobhan was likely to have taken her own life and she answered: “I knew Siobhan very well, she wouldn’t do it.”

Ms Clohessy said that she was aware that her friend was having marriage difficulties.

She said they ate the meal at approximately 6.30pm and that afterward she drove Siobhan and her son back to their house in Goatstown.

The court also heard evidence from Emer Brennan, manager and receptionist of a hair salon close to the Kearney home in Goatstown, who told Mr Vaughan Buckley that Siobhan phoned on Monday February 27 and made an appointment for a wash and blow-dry for the following day.

Jacinta Kane, secretary of Our Lady’s Grove Primary School, Goatstown, told Mr Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that Siobhan enquired on February 13, 2006, about enrolling her son in the school for the following September.

Ms Kane said that Siobhan completed the application form and that the school subsequently sent out a letter offering her son a place in the school.

The court also heard from a man who was working at Kelleher’s Electrical, Sandyford Industrial Estate, in February 2006.

Mr Colm Ward told the court that Mr Kearney, an electrical contractor, would call every morning to Kelleher’s between 8.30 and 9am where he would meet his employees before delegating work to them.

He said that Mr Kearney arrived between 7.50 and 8am on the morning of his wife’s death and agreed with Mr Dominic McGinn BL that this was “somewhat earlier” than usual.

The trial in front of Mr Justice Barry White and the jury continues tomorrow.