A man accused of murdering a woman with a lump hammer, wrapped her body up in bedclothes and left it outside his flat, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
John O'Neill (57), Mercer House flats, Mercer Street, Dublin, has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter but not guilty to the murder of Rosemary Dowling (49) at his flat in October 2005. Her naked body was found wrapped in bedclothes near his flat in the early hours of October 25th.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Gerard Clarke SC, said Mr O'Neill told gardaí he and the victim were engaging in sexual activity when she bit his penis.
Mr Clarke said there was some evidence of an injury and that he told gardaí it was this that caused him to get the lump hammer and hit her across the head. However, he rejected the defence's claim that Mr O'Neill was so provoked that it caused him to temporarily lose control of himself.
He said provocation as defined by law did not include losing one's temper.
Postmortem results showed Ms Dowling died following 14 blows to the head with a lump hammer. Her skull was fractured in three locations. One blow penetrated right into her brain and these injuries caused death.
In addition, he said, Ms Dowling had a cut to her throat and embedded in that cut was a piece of blade, the matching part of which was later found in Mr O'Neill's flat.
Mr Clarke said Ms Dowling, Home Villas, Donnybrook, Dublin, ran a second-hand record shop on Aungier Street. At about 7.45pm on October 24th, David Hurley, a passerby, saw her locking up the shop while talking to a man.
While both of them appeared to have taken some drink, the woman "seemed to have more taken" and both were talking loudly. He said it looked like the woman had wanted to go for a drink in the Swan pub and that the man was refusing.
Mr Clarke said the next time anyone noticed anything unusual was when a woman looked out of her window between 3am-3.15am when she smelled smoke. She noticed a fire and what looked like a bundle of sheets or bedclothes on the ground.
She thought it looked like a body, but dismissed the idea and went back to bed.
Another witness said he saw an armchair on fire and saw a man coming down with clothes and throwing them on to the chair. Later the woman, who had gone back to bed, heard the voices of people who had found what turned out to be Ms Dowling's body.
Gardaí later identified the body from dental records.
The jury is expected to hear evidence that on October 28th, Mr O'Neill called to Harcourt Terrace Garda station where he spoke to a detective superintendent and confessed: "I killed that girl."
A neighbour, Anthony Hollywood, said he had been standing on his balcony at the Mercer House flats when he saw Mr O'Neill, whom he had known for more than 20 years, walk across the courtyard with a woman.
He said Mr O'Neill looked like he had a few drinks on him and that the two appeared to be "in good spirits". Under cross-examination by Brendan Grehan SC, defending, Mr Hollywood said Mr O'Neill was "an obliging fellow" who would not be known as anybody who could have done what happened in this case.
He said Mr O'Neill used to help other neighbours by doing bits of DIY for them and that neighbours with children used to ask him to mind Christmas presents in his flat so they wouldn't find them. Mr O'Neill used to drink "a lot and often" and they would sometimes drink together, he said, but he was known as someone "quiet and kind" rather than violent.
The trial before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of 10 men and two women continues today.