The mother of a man accused of murdering his infant nephew said she had felt her son's life was "running out of time" before the killing and she had wanted him committed to a mental institution.
Ms Patricia Brennan told the Central Criminal Court yesterday that on February 29th, 2000, some hours before 17-month-old Jack Everitt Brennan was found murdered, she had taken the accused, Mr David Brennan, to her GP as she was extremely concerned about his behaviour.
The court has heard that the accused has a history of drug abuse and suffered from paranoid delusions and hallucinations.
Mr Brennan (20) pleads not guilty to the murder of Jack Everitt Brennan at or near Marsh Road, Drogheda. The prosecution has told the jury they must decide if the accused was of unsound mind at the time of the killing and, if so, they could find him not guilty by reason of insanity.
Jack Everitt Brennan was found strangled and trussed up with rope in a pond at a disused quarry.
Ms Brennan said the GP, Dr Howard Barry, referred David to St Brigid's Psychiatric Hospital in Ardee, and she and her sister, Adeline Curran, drove him to St Brigid's at around 6 p.m.
Ms Brennan and Ms Curran spoke to the registrar, Dr M.S. Das, and informed him about David's behaviour, which the witness felt was deteriorating rapidly.
"I felt David was running out of time," she told the jury. "I told Dr Das I could not bring David home that night." David stayed a short time alone in the doctor's office and then came out again. Dr Das said he was "not going to take him in".
Asked by Mr Sean Moylan SC, defending, how she felt about that decision, she replied: "I was totally devastated." Asked had she considered signing a committal order for her son, she replied: "We weren't given that option." She had told Dr Das that she could not bring David home that night.
Ms Brennan said they returned home to Marsh Road at around 7.20 p.m. and David went out to his father's house at Pitcher Hill. He subsequently returned to Marsh Road but left again at around 10.20 p.m.
The witness said she left some 10 minutes later and went for a drink with her sister-in-law and while she was in the pub, David rang her. "I said 'David, are you all right' and he said 'Yes' but he sounded agitated. He asked me would I be long."
Within an hour she received a call from her daughter, Barbara, the infant's mother. "She said David was gone and the buggy was gone." The witness said she returned home and began searching for David, and eventually spotted him near the Marsh pub, with a dog. There was muck on his cheekbones and his runners, and the back of his trousers was dirty.
He appeared totally distressed "as if he had completed a mission", she said. She did not sleep that night and left for work the following morning.
At around 10.20 a.m. Barbara rang her. "She was distressed because she could not find Jack," and he was not in the house. Ms Brennan told the jury she returned home and asked the accused repeatedly: "Where is the baby?" but there was no response.
"I repeated 'You killed baby Jack'. The answer was 'Yes'," the witness said.
Ms Brennan then asked him where the baby was. "He said 'quarry'. Just one word, 'quarry'." The witness said she had taken out a barring order against her son in October 1999, which lasted four months. When he returned, his room was occupied by Jack.
Asked by Mr Moylan to describe the defendant's relationship with his sister, Barbara, she replied: "Barbara still loves her brother," adding: "She knew he was ill." The court heard that David Brennan is currently confined in a secure unit in the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum.
In other evidence, the Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, told the court that Jack died from asphyxia caused by manual strangulation.