A murder defendant told gardai he had hit his mother a few "good hard blows in the face" and his brother had hit her head "good hard wallops" against the ground after they became angry because there was no food in the house for Christmas.
Further Garda evidence was heard in the Central Criminal Court yesterday relating to Mr Kieran O'Brien (23) and Mr Noel O'Brien (22) who, along with their father, Mr Joseph O'Brien (49), have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mrs Julia O'Brien (44) in High Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork, on Christmas Eve 1995.
The jury has heard that the deceased had a serious alcohol problem.
Det Garda James O'Riordan told Ms Aileen Donnelly, prosecuting, he interviewed Mr Noel O'Brien in Bantry Garda station on December 24th, 1995, and a memo of that interview was signed by the defendant.
Mr Noel O'Brien told him that when he returned home at 12.15 a.m., he was joined by his brother Kieran about 20 minutes later. "We were giving out about my mother drinking and no food in the house for Christmas," the memo of the interview read.
Mr Kieran O'Brien then went upstairs and Noel did not know what happened there. Five minutes later Kieran came down and five minutes after that his mother followed him. She and Kieran were exchanging verbal abuse.
At 3 p.m. in Bantry station, Mr Noel O'Brien gave a full statement to gardai giving his account of what happened. In this he told them he had drunk eight pints in local pubs before arriving home.
After his mother came downstairs and the argument with Kieran continued, he had joined in and at some stage said: "Mammy, I am sick of seeing you like this." It was then that she threw soup at him.
He went to the kitchen sink and washed his face and hands, he said, and when he returned to the sitting room he pushed his mother. He was in a temper. He
hit his mother "three good hard blows into the face". He then kicked her three times in the thigh. "Kieran kicked her too," he claimed. "When Kieran was finished I kicked her twice again."
His statement then alleged his brother had caught Julia by the hair and hit her head against the ground. "They were good hard wallops," he said. Kieran had then caught her throat and squeezed it.
He agreed that there was a lot more said in the course of the interviews with Noel O'Brien than was written down. Det Gda O'Riordan had not written down things that weren't particularly relevant, Gda Slattery said.
Garda Bartholomew O'Leary told Mr Ralph Sutton SC that when he and Garda Michael McCarthy interviewed Mr Kieran O'Brien in custody on the same day, they had a general discussion with him before taking a statement. "He more or less gave us the whole history, a sad history," he told the jury.
He told Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for Mr Kieran O'Brien, that "no notes were taken on that day". The gardai viewed the signed written statement of Kieran as sufficient, he said.
Garda Des Prendergast of Bandon Garda station gave evidence of a conversation he had with Kieran and Noel's father, Mr Joseph O'Brien, in the family home in Drimoleague on January 4th, 1996.
The garda agreed with Mr Michael McMahon, for Mr Joe O'Brien, that he had not taken a note of that conversation as it was happening, despite having cautioned Mr O'Brien. Mr O'Brien allegedly told him that when he had come upstairs and got undressed for bed, he had a verbal and physical confrontation with his wife.
The trial continues.