Wicklow farmer sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of brother

A Co. Wicklow farmer suffering from Parkinson’s syndrome has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his older brother in a row over their mother’s burial wishes.

Cecil Tomkins (aged 63) of New Lodge Nursing Home, Stocking Lane, Rathfarnham in Dublin had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Walter Tomkins (agd 66) at Cronlea, Shillelagh on July 1, 2010.

But last month, he was found guilty by unanimous verdict by a jury of nine men and three women after five hours of deliberation following the seven-day trial.

He was not present on March 16 last when the jury returned its verdict and had missed the last two days of his trial due to illness so sentencing was deferred.

Today Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan handed down the mandatory life sentence and refused a defence application for bail pending an appeal saying he did not think it was appropriate.

The application was made by Mr John O’ Kelly SC defending who said that it was a case where Tomkins, who has spent the past 18 months in a nursing home, posed no flight risk of any kind.

Mr O’ Kelly said his client required round-the-clock care, needed help with everything and said he had real difficulties with regard to how such a man would receive the right medical care.

Mr Dominic McGinn SC prosecuting raised concerns about Tomkins being a flight risk, the judge’s jurisdiction in relation to bail and said it was a matter for The Prison Service.

“I do not think it is appropriate to grant bail and accordingly I refuse to grant the application,” said Mr Justice Sheehan.

Tomkins, a bachelor, told gardaí that he shot his brother Walter, who was also a bachelor, in the hallway of the house they shared because he did not follow his mother’s burial wishes.

The trial heard their mother Bella Tomkins had been buried just days before the shooting on June 28 locally in Aghowle with her late husband who died of a heart attack in 1999. The farm was divided into three before their father died, the court heard.

Bella continued living with Walter and Cecil in the house for the next 11 years, the court heard.

Her original wish was to be buried with family in Kilcormac, Co.Wexford but she had later reserved a plot in Gorey in 2001 and left a letter outlining her wishes and money in an envelope to be buried there.

Tomkins told a consultant psychiatrist: “I got the gun and shot him. I regretted it the moment I did it.”

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Khalid Jabbar gave evidence in the trial that Walter Tomkins died from a single shotgun wound to the chest.

Consultant psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital Dr Paul O’ Connell told the court it was his opinion Cecil had dementia which "impaired his judgement” and that “a defence of diminished responsibility is available”.

Cecil told the psychiatrist he remembered his parents having rows and although they lived together, they led separate lives. He would not disclose the nature of these rows as he said he wanted to keep it private.

He told Dr O’ Connell he left school when he was 14, that he had never had a relationship and that he inherited 50 acres of land after the farm was split between the three brothers.

Dr O’ Connell said he had no psychiatric history, no previous convictions and he told him he would drink the odd time but had never been drunk.