A 34-year-old man has gone on trial charged with murdering his uncle two years ago.
Thomas Lorigan, who was living in Lisdoonvarna in Co Clare, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 79-year-old John O’Neill in January 2022.
The prosecution described the attack on Mr O’Neill, in which he was repeatedly kicked in the head, as ferocious and very vicious.
The court heard Mr O’Neill was a relatively fit and healthy man for his age. He and his wife had run a B&B in Lisdoonvarna up until his wife’s death in the middle of 2021. He had been living alone in the B&B since then.
Mr Lorigan was his nephew. His mother, Mr O’Neill’s sister, had died when Mr Lorigan was a child.
Prosecuting counsel Eilis Brennan said Mr O’Neill had acted as a guardian for Mr Lorigan and his siblings but when Mr Lorigan turned 18 the relationship had become strained.
Ms Brennan said Mr Lorigan had moved from Leixlip in Co Kildare to the Clare area and lived an “unsettled life”.
In late 2021, he was living in a derelict house but another local man allowed him to stay with him in his home.
On the night in question, Ms Brennan said the jury would hear evidence that Mr Lorigan and the other man, Walter Burke – who was separated and had his own issues with alcohol – were drinking red wine in the house and Mr Lorigan went to the local Spar shop on various occasions to get wine.
Later in the evening, Mr Lorigan left the house and when he came back he told Mr Burke he had a row with Mr O’Neill. Mr Burke did not think it was serious, she said, but the next morning, Mr Lorigan again referred to the incident and indicated it might be more serious.
She said Mr Burke rang emergency services who found Mr O’Neill’s body on the floor of the kitchen at his home. Family photographs were found smashed and broken in a living room, the jury was told.
Ms Brennan told the jury Mr O’Neill had died from severe blunt force trauma to the head – mainly to his face. She said they would hear that there were multiple fractures to all of the bones of his face, which was characteristic of multiple kicks and stamping to his face.
Mr Lorigan was arrested and items were seized including a pair of heavy steel-capped boots.
She said the jurors would also see CCTV footage of the assault which Ms Brennan said showed Mr O’Neill being kicked “in a ferocious manner in a very vicious assault” before his assailant dragged him back into the house.
She said it was the prosecution case that the evidence would show that Thomas Lorigan was “beyond a shadow of a doubt” the man who assaulted Mr O’Neill causing his death.
She said to be guilty of murder, a jury must find that someone intended to kill or cause serious injury to another person. Intention could be inferred from the relevant circumstances, she said.
And in this case the prosecution was saying the jury would have no difficulty finding a clear intention to kill or cause serious injury when a person kicks a 79-year-old man repeatedly on the upper body and in the head with steel-capped boots.
The trial is continuing.
