A WOMAN on trial for the murder of a 66-year-old man by driving a car into him had hit the man’s son over the head with a baseball bat shortly beforehand, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Claire Nolan (23), of Sheephill Green in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, has denied murdering Michael Duffy at Wellview Grove in Blanchardstown on January 26th, 2008.
The retired taxi driver died after he was struck by a car in the driveway of his son Francis Duffy’s home in Blanchardstown.
Ms Nolan has admitted manslaughter, but the State has refused to accept the plea.
Opening the case for the prosecution yesterday, Patrick Gageby SC told the jury that it is the State’s case that Mr Duffy’s death was “attributable . . . to the driving of the car by Claire Nolan”.
“You will hear evidence, which I think will satisfy you, that the car was driven at some speed into the driveway, through the closed gates and right up to the house itself. And in doing that, Mr Duffy snr was hit by the car and crushed to death,” Mr Gageby said.
Giving evidence, Josephine Cunningham told the court the accused had been drinking in her house with her daughter on the night Mr Duffy was killed, and that she “probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind” at the time.
Ms Cunningham described for the court how the accused thought Mr Duffy’s son had been trying to steal her new car, and became involved in a row with him during which she hit him across the head with a bat.
Ms Cunningham, who lives next door to the deceased’s son, Francis Duffy, said she was upstairs when she heard her daughter shouting at Ms Nolan that someone was trying to steal her Nissan Micra, which was parked in the driveway of their house. Ms Nolan had just bought the car that day.
“When Claire heard that she ran out and went and looked into the car and the radio was gone or something,” said Ms Cunningham.
She described the accused as being angry. “I suppose she was annoyed, plus she was after having a few drinks so she would have been in a rage,” the witness told the court.
Ms Cunningham said she saw her neighbour, Francis Duffy, in his garden talking on his mobile phone, and that there was blood streaming down his face because the “outraged person” had “belted him” over the head with a bat.
When asked by Mr Gageby who the outraged person was, the witness replied “Claire”.
Ms Cunningham said she returned inside, but heard “smashing glass and the rev of a car”, and on looking out the window saw the accused’s car being reversed out of her driveway, crashing through the gates of Mr Duffy’s house, and being driven up his driveway.
She said she couldn’t see who was driving the car at the time, but she saw her daughter’s boyfriend trying to stop the car.
“ was standing with his hands wide open saying ‘stop’ and the words ‘kill me’ . . . I suppose he jumped out of the way and then Mr Duffy got it.”
Ms Cunningham said she didn’t know Michael Duffy had arrived on the scene until she saw him lying in the driveway next door, with his son standing over him.
During cross-examination by counsel for the defence, Brendan Grehan SC, Ms Cunningham described the accused as a calm person, saying “I knew Claire as a placid girl . . . You’d never think anything like this would happen.”
She said she hadn’t seen Francis Duffy smashing the window of the accused’s car, nor had she seen him with a knife.
She said she didn’t recall hearing her daughter’s boyfriend telling the accused to leave the scene.
Ms Nolan’s car was found having been set on fire in “circumstances that are not clear” about 20 minutes after the incident.
The trial resumes this morning before Mr Justice Barry White.