Courts

Michael Scott didn’t think his aunt was going to die after running over her with teleporter, court told

Nephew accused of murder told gardaí he didn’t know he could call 999 for an ambulance

Michael Scott, with an address at Portumna, Co Galway, pictured arriving to the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. Photograph: Collins Courts

Eoin Reynolds
Fri Mar 10 2023 - 18:15

Michael Scott told gardaí that when he found his 76-year-old aunt lying on the ground after he had run over her in his agricultural teleporter, he did not see any injuries on her body and thought she was going to be okay when he heard her breathing, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Mr Scott has denied murdering his aunt and told gardaí that what happened was an accident.

In Garda interviews following his arrest on suspicion of murder, Mr Scott said he didn’t know he could call 999 for an ambulance and he didn’t think his aunt would die. He said he didn’t help her up off the ground because he needed someone with him. He said he called his friend Francis Hardiman because he didn’t know who else to call and didn’t know the number of any doctors.

Mr Scott denied that he murdered his aunt and said he did not want her to die. He also denied that he was in a temper and deliberately rolled over her a second time after initially reversing over her.

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Mr Scott (58) of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co Galway has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Treacy outside her home in Derryhiney, Portumna, Co Galway on April 27, 2018. The prosecution case is that Mr Scott deliberately ran over Ms Treacy following a long-running dispute over land. Mr Scott’s lawyers have said her death was a tragic accident.

Detective Garda Barry Carolan told Dean Kelly SC, for the prosecution, that he was present for the third of Mr Scott’s four interviews at Loughrea Garda Station on December 12th, 2018. Gda Carolan asked Mr Scott what he did after getting off the JCB and finding Ms Treacy on the ground.

He said he “went over beside her and said, “are you all right Chrissie. Oh God! What misfortune.” He said she was “breathing heavy” but wasn’t able to talk. He could see her face and when asked if she could recognise him, Mr Scott said: “I don’t know. Shocking, your only aunt.”

He said he didn’t notice any injuries and when asked if he tried first aid, he said: “I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

Gda Carolan asked why he didn’t call an ambulance. Mr Scott replied: “I’m not very well up on technology. I didn’t know you could ring an ambulance as well as the fire brigade on 999. I thought you would have to ring the hospital in Ballinasloe and I had no number for a doctor.”

The only person he could call, he said, was his friend Francis Hardiman. Mr Hardiman has given evidence that he drove directly to Derryhiney after receiving a call from Mr Scott and found Ms Treacy on the ground. He said the act of contrition into her ear and phoned emergency services.

Mr Scott said he didn’t think of pressing the panic button around Ms Treacy’s neck and he couldn’t remember if he stayed with his aunt. Gda Carolan asked if he was with her when his aunt took her last breath. He said he may have “blanked out”.

The trial has previously heard that Mr Scott had leased about 40 acres from Ms Treacy at Kiltormer but she was told by an agricultural consultant that she could get higher rent and leased it to someone else. The court also heard that Ms Treacy and Mr Scott jointly owned a 140-acre farm at Derryhiney but in the months before her death Ms Treacy had asked her solicitor Brendan Hyland to bring proceedings to have the land partitioned.

On the day of her death, Mr Scott received a letter from an agricultural consultant telling him not to claim farm payments for three plots on the Derryhiney farm as Ms Treacy was going to claim those for herself.

Mr Scott denied forcing his aunt to sign over the land to him in her will. He said it wasn’t true that his plans were “falling down” around him after Ms Treacy decided she wanted to partition the farm. He said he wasn’t concerned about the letter from Ms Treacy’s agricultural consultant and questioned how she could make an application for payments when she didn’t have any livestock.

He said that he didn’t think Chrissie was “behind the letter” and said that he was regularly talking to his aunt at that time and he couldn’t understand why she had contacted a solicitor instead of talking to him. He said his aunt would get confused but he had an understanding that the land would go to him when she died. “I have two witnesses to that,” he said.

He said he had invested a lot in Derryhiney and added: “Why do all that risk and work if someone else is going to take it over?” He said he only realised that Ms Treacy had left the land to her friend her friend Regina Donohue a few months after Ms Treacy died. “It was a very big shock,” he said.

The trial continues next week in front of Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and eight women.

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