Murder accused pleads not guilty by reason of insanity

A 52-year old Wexford woman has been charged with the murder of a man whose body was found lying outside his home in August 2012.

Caroline Roche from Ballyedmond Monamolin in Wexford has pleaded not guilty to murdering Walter Plunkett (84) by reason of insanity.

Paul Burns SC prosecuting opened the trial for the jury at the Central Criminal Court yesterday (Wednesday).

He told the court Mr Plunkett had lived at Ballyedmond near Gorey with his partner Caroline Roche for over 10 years.

The court heard gardai had received a telephone call at 4.50pm on August 19th from a lady identifying herself as Caroline Roche in which she stated she had killed him (Mr Plunkett).

Gardai had arrived on the scene at 5pm to find the deceased lying on his back outside the house.

Mr Burns told the jury that the accused was examined by Dr Ulrich Fricke who found Ms Roche was suffering severe schizophrenia and was unfit for garda interview.

The court heard Ms Roche was then admitted to a psychiatric unit at Waterford Hospital where she made further references to the killing of Walter Plunkett saying ‘I killed Walter Plunkett. There was no one else there. I bashed his head off the ground – I smothered him’.

On August 20th, Ms Roche was deemed fit for interview and attended Enniscorthy Garda Station.

Detective Inspector John Hunt confirmed Ms Roche told gardai she had killed Mr Plunkett because she thought he was going to rape her. Detective Hunt confirmed that the accused had told gardai ‘The two of us were madly in love until the devil came.’

Ms Roche told gardai in interview that she had gone to a priest to talk about the devil and that he had blessed her.

The court heard that a post mortem was carried out and that Walter Plunketts death was due to hypoxia or the shutting off of oxygen. A heavy weight to chest had made breathing impossible.

The jury heard the recorded phone call made by the accused to gardai on the 19 of August following the death of Walter Plunkett. “I’ve murdered someone. He’s punched and bruised. He couldn’t be any deader. I sat on top of him. I bashed his brains out.”

The trial continues today (Thursday) before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of six women and six men.