The maternal grandparents of a man who is accused of murdering his mother told a murder trial jury yesterday that they had forgiven their grandson, who "was not a well boy".
The accused man, Damien Donnan, broke his mother's larynx while strangling her during a row over a cigarette, the Central Criminal Court was told.
Mr Donnan (20) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jennifer Donnan (42) at the family home at De Valera Park, Thomondgate, Limerick on April 17th 2000.
Mr Patrick McCarthy SC, prosecuting, said that on the night of the killing Mr Donnan had spent the evening watching TV. His father, Daniel Donnan, who was separated from the deceased, visited the house at about 10.15 p.m. and stayed until 11.30 p.m. The accused man went to bed, but awoke sometime before 3 a.m. and went into his mother's bedroom looking for a cigarette.
Jennifer Donnan woke up, a row broke out, and as a result she was strangled, Mr McCarthy told the jury.
Shortly afterwards, the accused man woke his nine-year-old brother, David, and told him to run to his grandparents for help, as he had killed their mother.
The deceased woman's mother, Mrs Frances Daly, said that David Donnan arrived at her house at about 3.15 a.m. on April 17th. He told her "Damien is killing Mammy, or he's killed Mammy". She was not sure which.
She drove with another daughter, Olivia, and her boyfriend to De Valera Park and went upstairs. "I saw Damien standing on the banisters," the witness told prosecuting counsel. She asked him: "What did you do?" He replied: "She started it, Nana."
Mrs Daly said that her daughter Jennifer had a good relationship with Damien, but that he was not well and had received psychiatric care. "Damien, to me, was a very sick child." The witness said that the accused man spent his time staring at the television, sitting only inches from the screen. He had cut himself off from his friends and had been reluctant to leave the house.
Mr Patrick Daly, the accused man's grandfather, gave evidence of having visited his daughter, the deceased, at about 7.30 p.m. on the night of the killing. He said he had been worried that "Damien wasn't too well".
Asked by prosecuting counsel how the accused man was acting, Mr Daly described him as "very restless". The depression which had come over him was "like a shadow that swallowed him up".
"I'm very sorry for him," he added.
The trial continues today.