Intoxication can reduce murder to manslaughter, warns judge

The judge in a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court has told the jury that there are circumstances in which intoxication can reduce murder to manslaughter.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said that alcohol or drugs were no defence if their only effect was to allow a person to give way to his or her passion.

He said they’d have to render him incapable of knowing what s/he was doing or incapable of knowing the consequences or probable consequences of his or her action.

The judge was charging the jury in the trial of a Dublin woman on trial charged with murdering a father-of-four by crushing him between her car and a wall.

Claire Nolan of Sheephill Green in Blanchardstown has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 66-year-old Michael Duffy in his son’s driveway on Wellview Grove in Blanchardstown.

The taxi driver’s spine was broken in two during the incident and he died of crush injuries to his chest associated with severe, non-survivable internal injuries.

The 25-year-old mother told investigating gardaí that she meant to knock down his son and has pleaded guilty to his manslaughter on January 26, 2008; the prosecution has not accepted this plea.

She told detectives that she had been drinking wine and taking drugs in the house next door to the home of the victim’s son. She said she was told that this man, Francis Duffy, was tampering with her car and she went out and fought with him.

She then left, got into her Nissan Micra and drove into his driveway, she continued.

She said she was trying to hit Francis Duffy when his father jumped in her way and she couldn’t stop.

Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, said in his closing speech that Nolan had "a murderous intent" towards the deceased's son Fran Duffy "to the point that she admits it".

Mr Gageby said he thought the jury would be well satisfied that when Nolan returned to the scene in her car that it was not with "a loss of control but a desire for revenge".

He said that regarding the issue of provocation, it was clearly a case in which there was "a cooling off period" and that there was plenty of evidence that Nolan was very hostile towards Francis Duffy.

Mr Gageby said there was no evidence of the Duffys doing anything to provoke her.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, said it was not a murder case but a manslaughter case, although he said he was not suggesting that it was an accident.

Mr Grehan said he was not trading on sympathy as "Mr Duffy Snr was a totally innocent victim" but "neither should Claire Nolan be facing a charge of murder".

He asked the jury to consider the defendant’s state of mind and what her intent was at the time. He said she was "not a rational, thinking person; she was someone who was doing the opposite".

He said it was a series of actions "which escalated further and further", and there was no evidence of any cooling down on anybody’s part.

"She was acting out of control in response to things that had already happened. If that is the case, you cannot in conscience find her guilty of murder," he concluded.

The jury of seven men and five women will begin deliberating tomorrow morning.