A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Dubliner Tom O’Gorman.
Saverio Bellante, a 34-year-old Italian national from Palermo in Sicily, but with an address at Beechpark Avenue, Castleknock, was brought before Blanchardstown District Court this morning.
He is accused of murdering Mr O’Gorman at some time on Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
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Mr O’Gorman, a minister of the Eucharist who was involved in a number of Catholic groups and campaigns, was found dead at his home in Castleknock, west Dublin, at about 2.00am yesterday morning.
He was pronounced dead at the scene at Beechpark Avenue . State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy later carried out a postmortem .
Mr Bellante was arrested at the scene under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act yesterday.
Detective Sergeant Patrick Traynor told the court that Mr Bellante was charged at 12.05am this morning at Blanchardstown Garda station by Sergeant Morgan O’Connor. When cautioned at the Garda station, Mr Bellante replied: “I am guilty”, Det Sgt Traynor told the court.
Mr Bellante sat in court wearing a black sweater and black trousers and spoke briefly during a discussion on legal representation.
Judge McHugh noted that Mr Bellante had no legal representation in court. Gardaí told Judge McHugh that Mr Bellante wanted to represent himself.
Judge McHugh said he wanted to let the matter stand so that Mr Bellante could be informed of his rights regarding legal representation.
However a garda told the court that the matter had been discussed with Mr Bellante and he was “happy to represent himself”.
“She questioned me if I wanted to represent my self and the answer is yes,” Mr Bellante told the court.
Mr Bellante was remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on January 17th. The judge also ordered that he be given a medical assessment in Cloverhill prison. The hearing lasted for less than five minutes.
