A man has been charged with the murder of his parents after appearing at a special sitting of Ballyshannon District Court in Co Donegal late on Friday night. Julian Cuddihy (42), Churchtown, Carndonagh, was remanded in custody to appear at a special sitting of Letterkenny District Court next Wednesday.
Det Garda Bernard Mullins told the court that he arrested Mr Cuddihy and charged him with two counts of murder at Buncrana garda station last night. To the first count, Mr Cuddihy replied: “I have no response” and to the second count he added: “I’m not signing that.”
Solicitor Ray Lannon of Michael D White Solicitors in Carndonagh asked Judge Kevin Kilrane that his client receive immediate psychiatric assessment at Castlerea Prison. Judge Kilrane asked Mr Lannon if his client had a history of mental illness. He was told that a local doctor had attended Mr Cuddihy on October 15th, but he was not psychiatric assessed. “He was previously assessed and there was no diagnosis of psychiatric illness found.”
Judge Kilrane then recommended that Mr Cuddihy be assessed as soon as was conveniently possible. Free legal aid was also granted in the case.
Mr Cuddihy, wearing blue tracksuit bottoms and a wine-coloured sweat top and black trainers, sat wringing his hands throughout the hearing. He was accompanied into court by three Donegal-based detectives who sat beside him throughout the hearing.
The couple were found by family members at their home at Churchtown, on the outskirts of Carndonagh just after 9am on Thursday. They were well known in the area.
Ms Cuddihy (73) was a former nurse, originally from Malin Head. She was known throughout Donegal for her voluntary work especially with Letterkenny General Hospital. Her husband Jimmy (77) was originally from Kilkenny, but had moved to Donegal to work many decades ago. He was a former maths teacher at Carndonagh Community School and still gave maths grinds to local pupils in the area.