A Dublin man went on trial at the Central Criminal Court yesterday for the murder of his 15-year-old girlfriend in convent grounds in the city on Hallowe'en night in 1995.
Mr Keith Kelly (23), Colepark Drive, Ballyfermot, denies that on or about October 31st, 1995, in the grounds of the Dominican Convent, Lynch's Lane, Ballyfermot, he murdered Ms Melanie Gleeson (15), Colepark Road, Ballyfermot. Mr Kelly admitted manslaughter in the case but denies murder.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC told the jury the accused admitted he killed Ms Gleeson early in the morning of October 31st following an argument over another man.
He said the accused had told gardai he had been seeing Ms Gleeson and they had just had sex in the grounds of the convent known as the Peace Gardens when a row developed. He said the accused told the gardai that when asked, Ms Gleeson had said she had had sex with somebody else but that rumours that she was pregnant by that other man were untrue.
The statement read that both parties then started calling one another names and when "she hit me a clatter across the face. I hit her. I was on my hunkers. She was sitting on the grass. There was a stone just beside her and I reached for it. I hit her with the stone across the head, but I'm not sure where."
When Ms Gleeson's body was found, it had been partially covered by a coat, but was naked with multiple head injuries. Prof John Harbison will later give evidence that the cause of death was injuries to the head, with destruction of the brain stem, lacerations of the brain and multiple skull fractures.
Prosecution witness Mr Keith Ellis told the court that on Hallowe'en night, while drinking in the vicinity of the convent with a few friends, he heard a loud scream coming from that direction. "We heard a girl screaming loud and it was like the scream didn't get to reach its pitch or it was cut off. It was one scream," he said. "It came from the grounds behind the convent school, the Dominican school."
The trial before Mr Justice Smith and a jury of eight men and four women continues today.