A 30-year-old mother of three who strangled and suffocated her eight-year-old son refused to be admitted to a psychiatric ward just hours before the tragic incident.
A jury at the Central Criminal Court was told yesterday it must decide if Jacqueline Costello is guilty of the murder of her eldest son Robert Costello, or if she was insane at the time of the killing. Ms Costello, formerly of Woodlawn Grove, Waterford, denies the murder of the young boy at Deerpark, Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny on 28 October, 2000.
Opening the trial, Ms Miriam Reynolds SC, for the prosecution, told the court that at the time of the "very sad and very tragic" incident, Ms Costello was living in a rented house in south Kilkenny with her three children, Robert (8), Martin (3) and Stephen (22 months). One month earlier she had moved out of the house she shared with her long-term partner Stephen O'Keeffe in Waterford following "some difficulties in the relationship", Ms Reynolds said.
Mr O'Keeffe visited the children a few days before the incident and became "very concerned about the accused and the circumstances" in the rented house, counsel said. He contacted her GP and a social worker and the social worker rang him back and said she thought Ms Costello was okay. On the morning of the killing, Ms Costello agreed to be taken to Waterford Regional Hospital by Mr O'Keeffe, but got "quite upset" when they got there. "She was seen by a doctor and a nurse, but panicked and refused to go in and ran off," Ms Reynolds said.
"Stephen O'Keeffe pleaded with her to go back, but she wouldn't," Ms Reynolds said. Mr O'Keeffe was "worn out" and "had no option" but to bring Ms Costello home to the house she was renting in Mullinavat.
Ms Costello had been in touch with an elderly couple in Mullinavat who were Jehovah's Witnesses. John and Maria Ramshaw visited the accused a week before the incident when she told them "she heard voices and thought it was God talking to her". Mrs Maria Ramshaw gave evidence that they visited her again on the afternoon of Robert's death and found her in a "very distressed" state in the back garden.
"I saw her standing in the garden, she was shouting and crying; she was very distressed and upset," she said. When Ms Costello became aware of their presence she invited them in and said: "Come in then, you might as well see the evidence."
The Ramshaws went into the kitchen of the house and Mrs Ramshaw said she could see someone lying on the floor in the living room. She said Ms Costello "seemed calm enough" and told them "not to let the three-year-old see", before leaving the house and attempting to lock herself into the garage.
The couple went into the living room and saw the little boy lying on his back with a small kitten sitting on his chest. "It made me feel terrible, he was lying very still, his legs spread out and his arms up . . . with bubbles of froth coming out of his mouth," she said. Mrs Ramshaw tried to resuscitate the young boy, but could find no pulse.
"There was an awful lot of tablets and bottles of 7-Up lying around . . . she had told us not to drink the 7-Up as it was poisonous," she recalled. Mr Ramshaw contacted an ambulance and the gardaí were also called. Ms Costello came back into the house in a distressed state. She said she was going to kill herself. "She kept repeating 'I'm only 27 years old'," the witness said.
Ms Reynolds told the court that when gardaí asked Ms Costello what had happened to the child, she replied: "I killed him."
"I just wanted him to take the sleeping tablets. He said 'no fucking way', so I caught him by the throat and killed him."
"She cried bitterly and showed the tablets to the gardaí," Mrs Ramshaw said.
"You must decide not whether Robert Costello was killed by Jacqueline Costello, but whether or not she is guilty of murder . . . or whether she is guilty but insane at the time," Ms Reynolds told the jury.