Two of the stab wounds which killed a man required "significant force" to inflict the damage they did but four others were superficial, a jury in the Central Criminal Court was told yesterday.
Ms Kathleen Bell (36), of Camilaun Park, Newcastle, Co Galway, has pleaded not guilty to the murder but guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Patrick Sammon (42) at her home on June 20th, 1997. She was his partner and his sister-in-law.
Dr Malcolm Little, a pathologist at University College Hospital, Galway told the jury that he found six stab wounds to Mr Sammon's left chest and top of the shoulder, "defensive wounds" to the hands and abrasions on the forehead, upper back, right chest and left upper arm.
Mr Sammon died from internal haemorrhaging caused by the wounds, which the pathologist said were consistent with having come from a kitchen knife he was shown by gardai.
The blood alcohol level suggested "a moderate intake", he told Mr Marcus Daly SC, prosecuting. He agreed with Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, that Mr Sammon was "quite a drunk man" at the time he was killed.
Mr Alex MacClean, a social worker attached to Shantalla health clinic, Galway, said Mr Sammon came to see him on Thursday, June 19th. When he rang social workers in England about Mr Sammon's wife, Mary, they confirmed that she had died on the previous April 28th at Middlesex Hospital, London from a drink and drug overdose.
He said Mr Sammon hoped to get custody of his youngest daughter, and wanted help applying to Galway Corporation for a house.
There was a history of violence and alcohol abuse in Patrick and Mary Sammon's relationship, he said. Both were "frequently" admitted to hospital with injuries. Each inflicted injuries on the other, and each would show the social worker the marks to prove it.
He said Mr Sammon kept up a "veneer of respectability" in both his employment as a plasterer and on the domestic front, but frequently this veneer "would crack".
In his relationship with the accused's sister Mary, people were first inclined to blame her, "because she was a rather large lady and did not have that veneer of respectability about her that Patrick Sammon had." But on closer examination the couple were "six of one, half a dozen of the other", he said.
Mr MacEntee said his instructions were that in her relationship with Mr Sammon, Kathleen Bell inflicted injuries on herself and that Mr Sammon was complicit in this.
Mr MacLean said nothing would surprise him "about that relationship", which involved "extremely damaged individuals".
He agreed that it had occurred to him that Mr Sammon wanted to use his three children to get a corporation house, but realistically only wanted custody of the youngest one. He agreed that "alarm bells" had rung in his mind.
He said Kathleen Bell's father was a street musician with a history of violence and drink abuse, and her mother was destitute.
Records suggested that, in addition to her two brothers and sister Mary, there were two more children fostered in England and another child who died of meningitis at St Joseph's orphanage in Clifden.
Mrs Bell was reared in a very large institution with very few personal contacts. She was "a very damaged individual".
Mrs Lilly Broderick, who befriended her when she was at Mount Carmel orphanage in Moate, Co Westmeath, told the jury that Mrs Bell was "very disturbed" when a baby to which she gave birth while still a teenager was taken from her and put up for adoption.
She said that when Mrs Bell married at 18 and gave birth to a succession of children, her doctor advised her against having more. But her husband "brought the parish priest in" and the pregnancies continued.
Ms Bell could not cope with all the children, Mrs Broderick said, and when her husband left for England to work, she had a nervous breakdown. She "tried to commit suicide a number of times".
She also recalled that around the time her first child was put up for adoption, Mrs Bell took an overdose of tablets and was brought to hospital in Ballinasloe.
Garda Peadar Brick of Mill Street Garda station told the court that on February 27th, 1996 he witnessed Mrs Bell and Mr Sammon in the front garden, fighting for possession of a poker.
He saw Mr Sammon "punching her in the face with his fist", and he arrested him for common assault. Mr Sammon pleaded guilty and received a six-month suspended sentence at Galway District Court.