A jury has convicted a 39-year-old man of murder, rejecting his claim that he was provoked and defending himself from an attack by his ailing 58-year-old mother, whom he strangled and smothered to death in her own home.
Nigel Canavan (39) claimed that stab wounds to each of Angela Canavan’s thighs, one of which tracked to 13.5cm in depth, were self-inflicted by his mother.
Canavan claimed that he had acted in self defence when his mother, who had a brain injury from a fall four years before her death, attacked him by swinging her open hands at him and trying to kick him.
Taking the stand at his Central Criminal Court trial, Canavan further accused his mother of deliberately provoking him by calling him the “worst son in the world” and saying she wished she had never had him during a heated argument after he confronted her about her drinking.
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The jury of 10 women and two men spent over five hours considering their verdict before rejecting Canavan’s self-defence claim. They also rejected the suggestion that his mother’s alleged insults so provoked him that he could be found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder.
A pathologist found that besides being strangled and smothered, Ms Canavan had suffered a laceration to the top of her head, bruises to her face, body, arms and legs and three broken ribs. Some injuries indicated she tried to defend herself from an attack, and bruises to her chest suggested she had been manhandled before her death.
Canavan, with an address at Erris Gardens, Crossmolina, Co Mayo, had pleaded not guilty to his mother’s murder at her home in St John’s Terrace, Sligo on May 1st, 2023.
He had been on bail throughout his trial and did not react when the registrar revealed the jury’s verdict. His father, who has been by his son’s side throughout the trial, broke down in tears.
Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo remanded Canavan in custody and will sentence him to the mandatory term of life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing on June 3rd, when Ms Canavan’s other son, Keith Canavan, will make a statement to the court.
The trial heard that in February 2023, Canavan crashed his car outside the family home while drunk before confronting the driver of the other vehicle while holding a hurl. He pleaded guilty to drunk driving and assault arising from that incident.
His then wife, Claire Conroy, said she wanted a separation so she could get her life “back to normal”. In April that year, he moved to his father’s home in Crossmolina and on the May Bank Holiday weekend, Canavan stayed with his mother in Sligo.
Ms Canavan was a respected therapist and psychologist who had developed difficulties with alcohol. In 2019, she fell down the stairs of her home and suffered a brain injury that affected her mobility. She remained independent but required the daily help of carers. Ms Conroy, who was close to her mother-in-law, described her as a fantastic person whom she would often go to for advice.
On the Monday of the Bank Holiday, Canavan went to work at a hotel in Knock. On his way home, he bought some food from a takeaway and drank from a bottle of vodka he had purchased earlier.
At about 8.30pm, he called emergency services to say that he had found his mother dead in her kitchen.
In a voluntary interview later that evening, he told detectives that he had been arguing with his mother and went upstairs to get away from her. He said he heard a series of loud bangs, and when he came downstairs to investigate, he found her dead on the floor.
Taking the stand at his trial, Canavan accepted that he had been present when his mother died and that he had caused her death.
