Mother of deceased gives evidence in murder trial

The mother of the deceased in a murder trial said she received a threatening call from the accused in the days before the killing.

Mia Pricajan was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court on the second day of the trial of a 49-year-old man charged with murdering her only child.

Mihalache Marian, with an address in Romania, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his Romanian ex-girlfriend last year in Sandyford in Dublin.

Loradena Pricajan, a 35-year-old nurse, was found dead on January 28, 2010 in a bedroom at the Irish Management Institute (IMI).

Ms Pricajan said that she knew her daughter had been in a relationship with Mr Marian and she had met him. She said that on the evening of January 25 she received a phone call from him.

“He said: ‘Good day Mamma Mia. Where is Mr Pricajan, your husband?’ she testified through an interpreter today.

“I told him my husband was in the garden. Then he started to say hard words over the phone.”

She said that he told her that she and her daughter were two ordinary women.

“I asked why, why? He didn’t give any answer,” she said.

“Very painful,” she explained, asking for a moment to compose herself.

“Also he told me if I was aware how much he loved my daughter but said: ‘You are a family of ordinary people, because she has betrayed me’,” she said. “And he also told me: ‘Your daughter is a whore.’

“His voice sounds as a threatening one, he was very angry,” she continued. “Then I told him please don’t approach my family anymore.”

She said she also spoke to her daughter that night and spoke to her for the last time the following day.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, suggested to Ms Pricajan that it was clear his client was drunk on the phone.

“I didn’t know. I wasn’t aware,” she replied.

He suggested that, having known him for 13 or 14 years, surely she could tell.

“Yes, but I didn’t realise that over the phone,” she explained.

Mr Grehan also suggested that his client was not threatening in the call but clearly distressed.

“He threatened me because he told me to go with my daughter to get her in Heaven,” she said.

Garda Letitia McConnell told the court that when she arrived at the IMI that morning, it looked like there had been some sort of disturbance in the bathroom of Room G5.

“Wooden lattices were upturned and broken, the nails pointing upwards,” she said.

“There were blood smears on the white tiles, the shower head pulled off the handle, and water on the floor.”

She said the bed was completely blood soaked.

“I saw a very petite female in the bed, face down in blood,” she recalled.

She said she listened to six messages on the phone at the reception desk, which had originated from this bedroom.

She explained that at 6.28am a male voice said: “G5 Emergency, call me, G5.”

At 6.31am the male voice said: “G5 kill, call ambulance, and come in here with your keys and guards.”

At 6.33am there was a groan and the voice said: “Emergency, G5 coming, coming want keys.”

At 6.38am there was another groan and then the caller said: ‘G5 want keys here come quickly’.

Finally, at 6.43am there was just silence, she recalled.

Paramedic Liam Keogh said that when he went to the room at 7am, the accused was lying against a radiator.

“He looked like he had wounds to his neck and wrist. The strange thing was he was completely clean. He was wet, his body was wet, underwear wet, but he was completely clean,” explained Mr Keogh.

“It made me believe that the incident didn’t happen there, that he cut himself somewhere else,” he said when asked by the defence if it was strange that no blood was flowing from what were deep wounds.

He was asked if he thought this might have been caused by shock or the blood being drawn to the heart.

“No. It would indicate to me that he had bled out but there was no blood there,” he replied. “That’s the mystery.”

The trial before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury seven men and five women is expected to last until the end of the month.