A 42-year-old man died as a result of misadventure when he was killed instantly by a single gunshot wound to the head after his gun was discharged during a domestic dispute with his partner, an inquest into the man's death decided yesterday.
Englishman Charlie Wrench was found lying dead in a pool of blood in an upstairs bedroom at his home at Dromiscane, Millstreet, Co Cork, at around 10pm on August 14th, 2006, and yesterday his partner, Eva Walker (38) told the inquest how the tragedy happened.
The couple had been living together for about a year with her daughter from a previous relationship, Leah (13), and Mr Wrench's two daughters from a previous relationship, Cora (9) and Faye (5), who spent two weeks a month with them.
Ms Walker said on the day in question, Mr Wrench had been arguing on the phone with his former partner, the mother of his children, and when she [Ms Walker] spilled some wine in the house, a row ensued.
Mr Wrench, who had drunk two cans of cider, slapped her and tried to strangle her and she had passed out in a chair.
When she came to, she went upstairs to their bedroom to get a mobile phone to ring her family in Belfast to come and collect her and her daughter.
She said Mr Wrench, who had never been violent to her before, followed her and the row continued and she told him she was going to shoot him. "I had no intention of doing it, but you know how, up North, they say 'I'll shoot you', like they say down here, 'I'll kill you'."
Mr Wrench then said if that was the case, she had better shoot him herself and picked up his gun, which he handed to her before taking it back and loading it and handing it back to her with the barrel towards his face.
She said the next thing she heard was a bang and the gun went off. "Charlie was just standing there for a few seconds - I thought it had missed him but then he just collapsed on the floor," she told the inquest.
Mr Wrench's former partner, Natalie Sharples, said Mr Wrench was "a brilliant father" and "a nice-natured, peace-loving man", but when he had drink taken he could become violent and had done so on a few occasions when they were together. She recalled an incident when he had flung her across the room during a row and picked up his gun and invited her to shoot him with it, but when she told him to shoot himself, he went out and discharged a shot in the air to scare her into thinking he had killed himself.
Ballistics expert Det Sgt Shane Henry found the gun was working properly and required the safety catch to be unlocked and the trigger pulled back fully before it would discharge. He estimated Mr Wrench was 0.5m to 1.5m from the gun when it was fired.
Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, said Mr Wrench died from lacerations to the brain and bleeding, but the autopsy could not distinguish whether it was suicide, an accidental gun discharge or homicide, nor did it confirm or refute Ms Walker's account.
The six-man jury in Mallow returned a verdict of death by misadventure and Coroner for North Cork, Dr Michael Kennedy extended his sympathy to both Ms Walker and Ms Sharples on their tragic loss.
Last month the DPP recommended no one be prosecuted in connection with Mr Wrench's death.