An elderly farmer beaten and left hanging upside down at his home in a remote area of Co Clare died as a result of brain damage caused by blunt force trauma to the head, a murder trial was told yesterday. In the Central Criminal Court, Mr William Campion (31), of no fixed abode but formerly of Pine view Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, denies the murder of Patrick "Paud" Skehan (68), Bridgetown, O'Brien's Bridge, near Killaloe. He also denies burglary contrary to the Larceny Act and that between April 9th-10th, he trespassed into the home of Mr Skehan with intent to steal.
Mr Skehan was attacked during a robbery between April 9th-10th, 1998. When he was found by a neighbour on April 10th, he was hanging upside down in his kitchen, a bloodstained blindfold across his eyes, and his hands and legs bound with television cable wire and a necktie to a banister. His clothing was doused with petrol or another flammable material. He died in hospital on June 3rd that year.
Deputy State Pathologist Ms Marie Cassidy told Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC that her post-mortem examination the following day confirmed that Mr Skehan died of bronchial pneumonia of the lungs caused by strokes. She said that gripping the neck, a blow to it or even the neck striking an edge of a hard surface could cause fragments in the vessels connected to the brain to break off.
It was her opinion that Mr Skehan died as a result of a "significant cerebral damage caused by a combination of blunt force trauma to the head and neck". These injuries could have been due to punches, kicks, falling to the ground, or the head being forced or pushed against a hard surface, she said.
Det Garda Eugene Gilligan of the Garda Technical Bureau said that in addition to blood splashing to a height of four feet in the kitchen where Mr Skehan was found hanging upside down, the floor in an unoccupied bedroom upstairs was also heavily bloodstained.
A large section of bloodstaining showed a "dragging formation" and there were footprints made by what be believed to be a Fila runner in the area of the dragging stain. He said two sections of floorboards were removed by gardai, who believed they contained the best set of footprints for identification purposes. He treated the floorboards in a chemical process known as amido-black, which is designed to enhance marks made in blood and to show up finer detail.
Det Gilligan agreed with Mr Martin Gilbin SC, defending, that gardai removed a second section of floorboards on April 15th, 1998. They later removed all the floorboards from the room and the floor was reconstructed at Garda headquarters that November. He agreed that on the second and third visit, the crime scene was no longer preserved.
The trial continues.