Two sons who subjected their mother to "an appalling battering" should be found guilty of her murder, while their father should be convicted of her manslaughter because of his "criminal neglect", a prosecutor told a jury yesterday.
The submission was made as closing speeches began in the trial of Mr Joseph O'Brien (49) and two of his sons, Kieran (23) and Noel (22), in connection with the death of Ms Julia O'Brien (44) at the family home in High Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork, on Christmas Eve 1995.
Mr Justice Quirke has already directed the jury to acquit Mr Joseph O'Brien on the charge of murder, but he still faces charges of manslaughter, occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.
His two sons also face these charges and the charge that they murdered their mother.
In the Central Criminal Court yesterday Mr Ralph Sutton SC, prosecuting, told the jury that it had to consider the whole case in the light of the battering Julia O'Brien suffered.
He reminded them of the evidence of Dr Margot Bolster, pathologist, who said Ms O'Brien had sustained six broken ribs and 10 fresh bruises to her back, 11 to her limbs and 17 to her head and neck.
Over and above that, there was bleeding to the scalp, back and brain, Mr Sutton said, and above all, there was a fracture to the throat, indicating strangulation.
While it was ultimately the strangulation that had killed her, there was no question but that she had been subjected to "an appalling battering" by her two sons.
Mr Kieran O'Brien had clearly admitted kicking and strangling his mother and kicking her again, even after the strangulation.
His statements to gardai differed from what he said in court on Tuesday, Mr Sutton said, but the jury should consider that this was "subterfuge".
He told the jury they should be particularly suspicious that although there had been a lot of talk about kicking in his statements to gardai, "he never once told the guards he wasn't wearing shoes".
The prosecution further alleged that in Noel O'Brien's statements to gardai, he admitted kicking and pushing his mother. The two sons were on trial because they acted in consort, acted together, Mr Sutton said.
He also told the jury that they should dismiss the defence of provocation. They should ask if the act of provocation by Julia O'Brien that night, her abuse and her throwing soup on Noel, really provoked her two sons into doing what they did.
Julia O'Brien was frequently abusive and violent when drunk. The boys had put up with a lot from their mother. They were both quiet and submissive, and the evidence was that they had never hit her before.
He submitted that what had happened had gone far beyond the provocation. There had been a deliberate intention on the part of the two boys to teach their mother a lesson that night, he said.
The jury might think that strange, he continued, but they should remember that when Kieran O'Brien found no food in the house, he went upstairs and hit his mother on her head and face. There was no provocation for him to do that, Mr Sutton said.
The prosecution also alleged that Joseph O'Brien was guilty of manslaughter by neglect. He had fought with his wife upstairs and struck her, Mr Sutton said, and after he came downstairs and saw his sons beating her, he had left without doing anything to help her.
Closing speeches by defence counsel begin today.