A West Cork man who denies murdering his wife on Christmas Eve 1995 was "a very limited man of dull intelligence", who "knew very little about what was happening in his own home", a psychiatrist told a Central Criminal Court jury yesterday. Dr David Dunne was called by the defence on the 10th day of the trial of Mr Joseph O'Brien (49), and two of his sons, Kieran (23) and Noel (22), who deny the murder of Mrs Julia O'Brien (44) at the family home in High Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork on December 24th, 1995.
Dr Dunne, a consultant psychiatrist and the Southern Health Board's director of services in north Cork, told the court he had examined Mr Joseph O'Brien in February 1997, September 1998 and last Monday, November 9th.
Mr O'Brien was at the lower end of the mental scale, Dr Dunne said. He could not tolerate anxiety and would avoid anxiety. Mr O'Brien knew very little about his family life. He seemed "out of touch" and a person who went for "peace at all costs".
In one interview Mr O'Brien had told him that trouble in his home had been bad for only two years, but in the same interview he said the trouble had started 17 years before, when his wife had a breast removed due to cancer.
Under questioning in a Garda station he would have been very anxious, "and anxious to get out of it", the psychiatrist told Mr Michael McMahon SC. He had found he had to "dig" for information and "suggest" things to Mr O'Brien, who was "very non-communicative and taciturn".
Dr Dunne agreed with Ms Aileen Donnelly, prosecuting, that Mr O'Brien had been able to give him some detail in reply to questions asked and there was no question of a failure of memory. Many of Mr O'Brien's difficulties were personality-based, he agreed.
The psychiatrist said he got the impression that Mr O'Brien had "a very blank mind" about his family. "I would say his contribution was bringing home the money but I wouldn't think he would be an involved father."
Mr O'Brien was "very bad at home", like someone who, "if there is unhappiness, they ignore it, and everybody suffers".
Mr Martin Philpott, a psychologist practising in Cork, told Mr McMahon that Mr O'Brien had a reading age of a 10- or 11-year-old and his cognitive abilities were poor.
Care would have to be taken in questioning him, he said, and some questions would require explanation. Anxiety would make him want to leave a situation as quickly as possible.
Mr O'Brien had told Mr Philpott that he drank over seven pints of beer a number of times a week, if not every day. He had told him he frequently drank much more at weekends, on average 24 units of alcohol.
The court heard that Mr O'Brien had denied drinking that much when he spoke to Dr Dunne. Dr Dunne said he did not believe the man had suffered any brain damage from alcohol. He could not say whether he drank heavily or not, but he would say that he did fit in with the personality of a heavy drinker.
Dr Dunne had also examined Mr Noel O'Brien, the jury heard. He found him "slightly duller than his father" and his family also considered him dull, an issue Noel was very sensitive about.
He had considered Noel of borderline mental handicap but had revised that view the second time he spoke to him, when he found him "much brighter" after the depression and grief connected with his mother's death had lifted.
Mr Philpott told Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, for Mr Noel O'Brien, that it would be difficult to give a detailed assessment of Noel as he had spoken to him only once.
However, he believed him to be of poor mental ability. For example, Mr Philpott said, he had not been able to spell the name of the factory he worked in.
Mr Ralph Sutton SC, for the prosecution, asked Mr Philpott how the factory's name was spelled. The witness said he himself was not sure he could spell it. He agreed with Mr Sutton that many people had a dull average mental ability and that to an outsider Mr Noel O'Brien would appear a perfectly normal individual.
Earlier in court, Det Sgt John Healy denied a defence suggestion that Mr Joseph O'Brien in custody was "a hapless individual", agreeing with everything gardai put to him. He said it was not true to say that Mr O'Brien had been under pressure. He was a very quiet individual, the garda said, but he had been very anxious to make a statement, and that is what he did.
Mr Justice John Quirke told the jury the prosecution case was virtually complete, but for the convenience of Dr Dunne and Mr Philpott they had been called for the defence yesterday.