A DUBLIN man who kicked his girlfriend to death was found not guilty of murder but convicted of her manslaughter by a jury at the Central Criminal Court yesterday. The jury of seven women and five men took just over three hours of deliberations over two days to reach their unanimous verdict.
Laurence (Larry) Callaghan smiled and said: "Thank you" after the jury returned their verdict and Mr Justice Carney remanded him in custody for sentencing on February 25th next.
Callaghan (34), from St Mary's Road, Crumlin, Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to the murder, but guilty to the manslaughter of Ms Janet Mooney (29), between September 17th and 19th, 1996, at the flat they shared at Harrington Street, Dublin.
Callaghan admitted during a five-day trial that he kicked Ms Mooney in the head after they had a row over a piece of cannabis he thought she had hidden from him.
Both of them had been drinking all day and had already smoked cannabis before the row.
The jury heard that gardai later found the piece of cannabis on a shelf in the bedroom of their flat.
Callaghan said he initially hit Ms Mooney over the head with a soup bowl, then hit her in the face with his fist and kicked her.
He said he then tried to clear her mouth of blood by pouring water on her but failed and believing she was dying, turned to leave the flat. "Believing she was leaving me, I couldn't contain my rage. I reacted violently. I lost all restraint. With blind rage I assaulted her. I started kicking her," he said.
Callaghan also told the jury that after leaving Ms Mooney's body in the flat they shared, he went to a pub for more drink and got more cannabis in Dolphin's Barn.
He said he returned to the flat, fell asleep beside the dead body and had sex with it the next morning before realising that Ms Mooney was dead.
Callaghan said he was a "a recovering alcoholic" and that Ms Mooney also suffered from a drink problem and both of them used cannabis.
State Pathologist Dr John Harbison told the court that Ms Mooney died from bleeding over the surface of the brain due to multiple head and facial injuries consistent with multiple kicks.
At a previous trial last October the jury was discharged after failing to agree on a verdict and a retrial was ordered.