A 38-year-old man on trial for murdering his mother told gardai he battered her to death because she was "domineering" and "wrecking" his head, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mr Kevin Bridgeman has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Marie Bridgeman (56), at their home at Old Mill Estate, Ratoath, Co Meath, between January 21st and January 22nd, 2003.
The court heard the accused told gardai he killed her because she was "psyching" him out.
Mr Justice Barry White said they had to decide "not whether Mr Bridgeman killed his mother but rather what was the state of his mind at the time".
Opening for the prosecution, Mr Gerard Clarke SC told the jury they would hear prosecution evidence from a psychiatrist saying that the accused was legally insane at the time of the killing. He was since detained at the Central Mental Hospital.
The court heard on the night of the killing, Mrs Marie Bridgeman travelled from Dublin to Ratoath on the 103 bus. She phoned Kevin Bridgeman and he met her at the bus.
Shortly afterwards, "a number of neighbours heard a commotion" in the grounds of a nearby house. "They looked out and saw Kevin Bridgeman jumping up and down in a most agitated and furious manner." It emerged that he was jumping on his mother's body.
Counsel told the jury they would hear evidence from the State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, that Mrs Bridgeman died from a combination of brain injury, inhalation of blood, facial fractures and compression of the neck.
In evidence, Sgt James Troy, Ashbourne, told the court the accused admitted killing his mother. In a statement of interview read out in court, Kevin Bridgeman said: "I battered her to death with my fists. I kept hitting her with my fists...I hit her and I gouged out her eyes." He also claimed to have stabbed her.
However, cross-examined by Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC, defending, Sgt Troy said the post-mortem recorded no such injuries. Justice White, interjecting, observed that the accused's claim of gouging out her eyes appeared to have been a similar "figment of his imagination".
According to the interview notes, the accused said an argument erupted when his mother told him to go to bed and turn off the light but he refused. She then told him she was going to see his father and he called her back. She was "wrecking my head", he said. Asked by gardai if he meant to kill her, he replied "No" and that he was sorry.
In evidence, the accused's father, Mr Kevin Bridgeman snr, told the jury he got a call to go to Ashbourne Garda Station. When he asked his son what had he done, he hit him in the face.
"It wasn't my son that night. It was someone else," Mr Bridgeman said.