MR Brendan O'Donnell is not insane but is "a cute, cunning, thinking, rational, clever, self interested liar," a prosecuting lawyer told the Central Criminal Court yesterday.
Mr O'Donnell was "a man who set out with pleasure to kill", Mr Kevin Haugh SC told the jury in This closing speech on the 51st day of the trial. Mr O'Donnell has denied the murder of three people and nine other charges relating to events in April and May 1994.
"To this day, in March 1996, when Mr O'Donnell recalls the killing of Imelda and Liam Riney and Father Walsh, what you see on his face is well described as a beatific smile," he said. For Mr O'Donnell the killing of innocent people was "a memory of real pleasure".
There were "vast numbers of people in this world who have blood lust, who enjoy killing and are not insane", Mr Haugh said, and Mr O'Donnell was "a man who set out with pleasure to kill".
He said the jury would have no difficulty in finding Mr O'Donnell guilty of the offences, because almost all the evidence pointed the same way. The real issue was whether Mr O'Donnell was insane at the time, Mr Haugh said. He said Mr O'Donnell had bold deliberate lies "to cover his tracks" and had invented a story about the devil telling him to kill because he wanted to be in the Central Mental Hospital and not prison.
He said Mr O'Donnell had claimed the voice of the devil had told him to kill Imelda Riney and Father Walsh. Mr O'Donnell had told the court he had told his victims of his mission to kill, Mr laugh said, and asked the jury to compare this account with the evidence of Ms Fiona Sampson. Mr O'Donnell had said the devil had told him to kidnap and kill her, so why had he not told Ms Sampson of that?
When Mr O'Donnell's story can be tested he comes out as the person whose story does not match up, Mr Haugh added. At the time of the offences Mr O'Donnell's actions were of a self interested and cunning man chose acts showed a clear pattern of a thinking man who was working things out and planning his next move, he argued.
The jury could not be persuaded by the evidence that when Mr O'Donnell "did his killings" she was insane. If they were not persuaded he was insane, the proper verdict was guilty of all charges.
Mr O'Donnell (22), a native of Co Clare but of no fixed abode, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Riney (29) and her son Liam (3), Father Walsh (37), of Eyrecourt, Co Galway, and the false imprisonment of Father Walsh. He has denied kidnapping Ms Sampson and Mr Edward Cleary on May 7th 1994, and having a shotgun and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
One of the jurors became unwell yesterday afternoon while Mr Patrick MacEntee SC was making his closing speech for the defence. Mr Justice Lavan adjourned the trial until Monday. He sent the jury home, telling them not to discuss the trial with anyone "at this crucial stage".
In his closing speech yesterday, Mr MacEntee said the State was putting forward a "limited and selective" account of the evidence. To ensure that justice was done, the jury must follow him "into what is a virtual hell the hell that has been the life of Brendan O'Donnell". Only then could they get an insight into "the vital question", the true state of Mr O'Donnell's mind "when he killed" and carried out the other offences, Mr MacEntee said.
"Nobody in this case can play God," and all came to such a case with an enormous amount of outrage, Mr MacEntee said. But he warned the jury against escape goating Mr O'Donnell for of fences which had caused outrage and pain. He said it was the sick, unattractive, nasty, badly damaged who most needed justice. It was easy to dispense justice to well behaved wrongdoers. "The Brendan O'Donnells of this world are the ones who test the system."
Mr O'Donnell was "a sad, sick, not terribly honest and singularly unattractive young man who had "no doubt told some lies, some important lies, in the witness box". But the State had left out many things in making its case that Mr O'Donnell was not insane.
Mr MacEntee said Mr O'Donnell had "endless testing until he's blue in the face, but no treatment". He had been in and out of mental hospital after mental hospital, prison after prison, and in his cries for help had slashed his wrists until the scar tissue bore "cut upon cut".
None of that was in the State summing up, Mr MacEntee said. He said the State must prove its case that Mr O'Donnell was guilty on all charges beyond all reasonable doubt. He said the onus was on the defence to satisfy the jury on the balance of probabilities that at the time of the offences O'Donnell was legally insane.
Whether Mr O'Donnell was found guilty of murder or guilty but insane, either way he would be kept in the Central Mental Hospital for the foreseeable future. Mr MacEntee said the head of the CMH had told the court that Mr O'Donnell would stay at the CMH until he was deemed not to be a threat to himself or society and that would probably mean the rest of his life.
Brendan O'Donnell was a human being "who on anyone's evidence is a badly damaged creature", Mr MacEntee said. No one was suggesting he was suffering from nothing or that he did not have "a grave disorder".
Mr MacEntee is expected to conclude his closing speech on Monday, after which the jury will consider its verdict.