Man who stabbed and mutilated Kilkenny pensioner found guilty of murder

A jury on Friday took just one hour and 19 minutes to find a man who beat, stabbed and mutilated a pensioner in her own home guilty of her murder.

The Central Criminal Court trial heard evidence that on March 25th, 2020 three anonymous 999 calls were traced back to the defendant Trevor Rowe (30), including one where he said he murdered a woman five days previously and that the location of the body was on Maudlin Street in Kilkenny.

When gardaí called to Rowe’s home, he fell to his knees, cried uncontrollably and said: “I killed a woman. I murdered a woman. I slit her throat and stuck a knife in her head”.

Rowe, of Abbey Street, Kilkenny had pleaded not guilty to murdering 71-year-old Ann Butler at her home at Maudlin Street, Kilkenny on March 20, 2020.

The 12 jurors took just one hour and 19 minutes to unanimously reject a defence of intoxication put forward by Rowe, whose lawyers had argued that the amount of drink and drugs consumed by their client on the day had prevented him from forming an intent to kill or cause serious injury to Ms Butler.

They instead agreed with the prosecution that the “only rational conclusion” was that Rowe intended to cause death or serious injury to the pensioner when he “deliberately shoved” a large piece of cardboard into her throat.

Prosecution counsel, John O’Kelly SC, reminded the jurors that this cardboard was pushed so far into Ms Butler’s throat that the State Pathologist was unaware of its existence until the victim’s throat was dissected.

Following the verdict, Ms Justice Karen O’Connor thanked the jury for the time and effort that they had put into their service.

Ms Justice O’Connor will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment to Rowe on April 1st and remanded the defendant in custody until that date.

On that date, the Butler family will have an opportunity to make a statement to the court about the impact Ann’s death has had on their lives.

Phone call

At the outset of the trial, Padraic McInerney said that he was working in Waterford Garda station on March 25th 2020, when he received a call on the 999 line from an anonymous phone number. “The first thing the caller said to me was ‘Call me God’,” he said. The caller then later said: “I wish to inform An Garda Siochana that I killed a woman”.

Witness Fiona Dunphy saidshe received another 999 call at 6.30pm on the same day. “The male came through and said he murdered someone and told me that the location of the body was at the back of Langtons on Maudlin Street in Kilkenny,” she said.

The witness told the jury that the caller seemed to be frustrated and said he would commit another murder if they did not take the calls seriously.

Detective Garda Martin Power told the jury that after gardai had traced the anonymous calls, he called to Rowe’s apartment on Abbey Street on March 25th and found the defendant standing in front of his couch and rummaging with both hands behind his back.

“I asked him what he was doing with his hands and he pulled out two screwdrivers, one in each hand. I asked him to leave the screwdrivers down and he complied with my request and left them aside,” said Det Gda Power.

The detective asked Rowe what knowledge he had of the 999 phone calls and said the accused fell to his knees crying uncontrollably.

Rowe then told Det Gda Power: “I killed a woman. I murdered a woman. I slit her throat and stuck a knife in her head on March 20th at Maudlin Street”.

The accused later showed gardai to Mrs Butler’s house on Maudlin Street before again falling to the ground where he broke down crying.

The detective opened the door of Ms Butler’s house and as he did “a gush of heat” hit him along with a smell of what he believed to be a decaying body. Det Power’s colleague confirmed to him that there was a female body in the living room and that the circumstances of her death appeared suspicious.

Arrest

Rowe was arrested at 7.38pm that evening on suspicion of the murder of Ms Butler and conveyed to Kilkenny Garda station.

Detective Sergeant James O’Brien told the trial that Ms Butler had lacerations to the neck, an injury to the head and her left ear appeared to be missing when he entered her home on March 25th.

Describing the accused’s demeanour in the back of the patrol car following his arrest, Det Sgt O’Brien said Rowe made several statements in the vehicle including “I just wanted her to be found” and that he had “slit her throat and stabbed her in the head last Friday”.

The court heard that the defendant asked himself “what have I done, what have I done”.

Det Sgt O’Brien said the accused also stated: “I thought it was going to be an easy touch, what have I done”.

Chief State Pathologist Linda Mulligan testified that the body of the pensioner was discovered in a mutilated state after she had been beaten, stabbed and had her throat slit, while a large piece of cardboard was also found in the back of her mouth.

The court heard that “a strip” of Ms Butler’s ear was later found in the living room of her home and Dr Mulligan agreed that part of the victim’s ear had been cut off.

Forensic scientist Dr Alan McGee also told the jury that a Linden Village cider can, a crowbar and the wooden part of a crucifix were found in Ms Butler’s living room on Maudlin Street. He said that a male DNA profile obtained from the Linden Village can matched Rowe’s DNA profile.

The witness said he also examined blood-stained gloves found on a coffee table in the accused’s apartment on Abbey Street. “A female DNA matching that of Ms Butler was obtained from a sample of this blood-staining,” he said.

The jury also saw CCTV footage of Rowe walking in the direction of the woman’s house on the night she was killed.

The 12 jurors also heard that Rowe accepted in garda interviews that he killed the woman but refused to say why, telling detectives it was to do with “no one; just me, God and that woman”. He had also said that: “It wouldn’t do her family any good to know. I can’t even close my fucking eyes with the nightmare I see.

When asked by gardai why he could not tell them what he did to Ms Butler, Rowe replied: “because it’s disgusting.”

The defendant also told officers that he was going to return to Ms Butler’s house “to cut her up and bury her legs one place and bury her arms somewhere else” but instead made anonymous phone calls to gardai so they could find her body.

Timber cross

The trial had heard that a timber cross was recovered from the floor in one of the bedrooms in Ms Butler’s house on Maudlin Street and a “Jesus figure” was found in Rowe’s apartment on Abbey Street.

A forensic scientist gave evidence that her findings provided “extremely strong support” that the timber cross and “Jesus figure” were originally from the same crucifix unit rather than not. This, Mr O’Kelly SC said in his closing speech, was a “clear scientific connection” between Rowe and the deceased.

Addressing the 12 jurors, defence counsel Kathleen Leader SC said the jury was dealing with “the killing of an elderly lady” and in order to convict her client, they must be “absolutely sure” that he had intended to kill Ms Butler.

Ms Leader suggested to the jury that there was another conclusion open to them on the evidence, which was that Mr Rowe was guilty of manslaughter. She submitted that the evidence in the case supported the conclusion that intoxication prevented him from forming intent.

Rowe told gardai in his interviews that he had taken “40 D5’s” [Diazepam]and drank all day before the incident on Maudlin Street.

Mr O’Kelly asked the jury to consider what it took to shove the cardboard down the pensioner’s throat. This, he submitted, was “so far away from being accidental” and was instead a “deliberate” act.

“Anyone who inflicted those injuries could have no intent other than to cause death or serious injury. It is the only rational conclusion,” he said.

Mr O’Kelly also said that Mr Rowe was “cute and calculated enough” to make the anonymous calls on borrowed phones and then make sure he had deleted those calls from the handsets. “This is no man on some angry rant, this is calculation. This man does not want to be traced,” he stated.