Teen killed Lorna Woodnutt in hammer attack and posted images online to alert gardaí, court hears
Lorna Woodnutt died after an attack at a property in Tullamore in September 2023. File Picture.
A teenage boy used a sledgehammer and a lump hammer to bludgeon 51-year-old Lorna Woodnutt to death before posting a video on Snapchat and sending a selfie with the victim's body, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
The victim's niece told on Monday how she discovered her aunt had been brutally murdered when she received content that she described "as something a terrorist would create".
The boy told detectives he recorded and shared the video on Snapchat with "everyone in his contacts", which the court heard was "a three figure number", so that officers "would come". Those individuals had access to the video for 30 minutes, but the teenager took it down when gardaí arrived, the court was told.
The court also heard during Monday's sentencing hearing that the now 17-year-old defendant, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at 18-months-old and there had been an increase in his aggressive and oppositional behavioural issues towards staff and students in his school in the weeks leading up to the killing.
Laboratory technician Ms Woodnutt had suffered fatal blunt force injuries to the head, face and chest in the attack when she was sitting at a kitchen table working on her computer.
The boy appeared at the court on Monday for his sentence hearing having pleaded guilty earlier this month to murdering Lorna Woodnutt, aged 51, at a property in a rural area outside Tullamore, Offaly on September 29, 2023.
The defendant called 999 on two occasions after he murdered Ms Woodnutt and gardaí also received a phone call as a result of the video posted online.
In his interviews, the teenager told gardaí that he got angry and had "lost the head" when he had an argument with Ms Woodnutt. "Now I regret it as I'm stuck here, I just whacked her, I don't know what got into me, it just built up over the years," he added.
The boy said he "came at" Ms Woodnutt with a hammer and had "overpowered" her.
An analysis of the boy's phone revealed Google searches about hammer attacks, the garda’s ability to track phones and searches about the behaviour of psychopaths, the court was told.
At the defendant's sentencing hearing, five victim impact statements were read to the court written by members of the victim's family.
Ms Woodnutt's brother, Derek Woodnutt, said his sister had her life "snatched" from her long before she was due to go to her place of rest "by such a cold-hearted killing".
He said when people stop him, he wonders "what do they know?"
In another victim impact statement read to the Central Criminal Court today, Ms Woodnutt's sister Roberta O'Brien said her "gruesome murder hosted on social media has left us broken beyond words".
"Our biggest fears would be his video to reappear on social media in the future. This would lead to more suffering, a constant reminder of how our despicable nightmare began".
A statement on behalf of the Woodnutt family said that they had walked into a Garda station on September 29 "oblivious to our sister's public execution, which was hosted on social media by her murderer".
"Evil entered the sanctity of our family that day...it is unbearable and we cannot see beyond it."
The statement continued: "Lorna loved life, she loved people, and was loved by people. Let Lorna not be defined by the grotesque way she was murdered."
The victim's niece, Jessica Woodnutt, said: "I shed tears as I knew the full extent of what lay beneath the cloth.
"I now hate the mere mention of the word hammer. I can't stand the sight of them. Even a wooden mallet used to put up a sign post at an event one day turned my stomach."
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said it was essential to have a probation report available to him before he could complete the sentencing process. He adjourned the case until October 3, and directed that the boy be detained at Oberstown Children Detention Centre until then.
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
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