A man accused of the murder of his girlfriend in Dublin three years ago had sex with her dead body and kept it in his flat for three days before giving himself up, a jury heard yesterday.
In the Central Criminal Court Laurence Callaghan (33), formerly of Strand House, Athlone, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter but denied the murder of Ms Janet Mooney (29) between September 17th and September 19th, 1996, at the flat they shared in Harrington Street, Dublin.
Opening the prosecution case before a jury of 10 men and two women, Mr Sean Ryan SC said the evidence would show that after a day spent drinking and smoking cannabis, the couple had an argument, which according to the accused was over the whereabouts of a £5 hash deal Ms Mooney had just bought.
Ms Mooney was getting ready for bed when the accused asked her where the second of two hash deals she had earlier bought was. "She told him more or less to fuck off, and at that he kicked her. He acknowledges he kicked her severely, and he killed her", said Mr Ryan.
He said the State Pathologist's evidence would show she suffered at least six separate injuries to her head and severe injuries to her chest, with six fractured ribs on the left side and two on the right side. In addition, there were 20 bruises to the left of her abdomen and 18 to the right.
On Friday, September 19th, Callaghan went to a friend who rang gardai. He later admitted to gardai the morning after he attacked Ms Mooney, he awoke beside her body and had sex with it. "I didn't realise she was dead."
He then moved her naked body into a bedroom and kept it there until he gave himself up.
Mr Ryan told the jury: "A straight not-guilty verdict is not an option. The debate is between murder and manslaughter".
Mr Raymond Nugent, a rent agent for the flats at Harrington Street where Callaghan, an unemployed man, lived, said that when he called to collect rent on Monday 16th, the accused said he would catch him on Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning Callaghan told him he was going to collect his rent allowance just then and would be back in an hour. Mr Nugent said that he would come back on Friday for it. He agreed with Mr Erwan Mill Arden SC, defending, that both Callaghan and Ms Mooney liked drink.
A neighbour, Ms Bridget Melligan, told the court that on the evening of Tuesday, September 17th, Janet Mooney joined the accused as he sat drinking on the patio outside the back of his flat.
She agreed that in a statement she told gardai she overheard Janet Mooney saying: "I am leaving you" and Larry Callaghan replying: "You might as well", or words to that effect.
She said she saw Ms Mooney lifting up a chair and swinging it at the accused.
Mr Michael Noonan, a barman at a pub in the area, told the court that on Wednesday morning, September 18th, Larry Callaghan sat at the bar counter and drank two whiskey chasers and two lagers before telling him: "I done an awful thing last night".
"I said: `What was that?' and he said, `I murdered a person'."
Callaghan went on to say that he had wrapped her up in a flat and she would not be found for a few days. Mr Noonan said he thought it was "very funny" and found it hard to believe, but he told the accused to "go down to the barracks and report it". Mr Gregory Keelan, a self-employed mechanic living at Rathmines Park, said that when he arrived home at around 5 p.m. on September 19th, the accused was waiting for him. Mr Keelan said Larry Callaghan had "dirtied his bib twice so I didn't want anything to do with him". However, Callaghan insisted and he took him inside his house.
There, Callaghan asked for a drink, which he was at first refused. But when he got a phone call from Callaghan's mother saying she felt something terrible had happened, "I then let him tell me the story", Mr Keelan said.
Callaghan told him that a row had broken out between himself and Janet over a £5 hash deal. He had kicked her and she had "spewed blood from the mouth".
Mr Keelan immediately rang gardai, and Garda David McDonnell arrived at the house and spoke to Callaghan. Garda McDonnell agreed with Mr Mill Arden SC that Callaghan was very open and frank.
Callaghan later brought gardai to the flat. There, Garda James Keane said, he saw that there was an orange nylon cord tied from the bedroom door handle to a coat hook so that the door could not have been opened from the inside. Inside the bedroom, the body of Janet Mooney lay naked beneath bed clothes.
The trial continues before a jury and Mr Justice Carney.