A Tipperary man on trial for the murder of Galway pensioner Mr Tommy Casey in 1996 admitted manslaughter yesterday after the DPP accepted the lesser plea midway through his trial.
Patrick O'Connor (37), from Poulboy, Kilgainey, Clonmel, Co Tipperary had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Casey (68), who died between January 15th and 23rd, 1996 at his home in Oranbeg, Oranmore, Co Galway.
O'Connor had also denied three further charges of trespass with intent to rob, assault, and the false imprisonment of Mr Casey at his home on January 15th, 1996.
Mr Casey's body was found on his kitchen floor eight days after he was attacked in an attempt to get him to divulge the whereabouts of his savings. His hands had been tied behind his back with a clothes-line and the cord was then tied around his ankles.
His house on the Dublin side of Oranmore village had been ransacked.
A jury had heard seven days of the prosecution case in the trial before being sent away on November 29th last. Legal argument then took place over five days.
Yesterday, the jury was recalled to hear that its service was no longer required.
O'Connor was re-arraigned before the jury and pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Casey. Prosecution counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC said the DPP took the view that the other charges O'Connor faced were subsumed into the manslaughter plea.
Sentencing was put back to February 8th next and Ms Justice Carroll ordered a probation report.
The trial heard that Garda Colm Finnerty arrested Patrick O'Connor after garda∅ stopped a car for a minor traffic violation in Galway city at around 8.40 p.m. on January 15th, 1996. O'Connor was driving the car. Its other occupants were his then girlfriend, Ms Alison Connors, her mother, Ms Kathleen Connors and another named man.
The car's tax and insurance discs did not match its registration plate, and there was a set of false plates in the back boot. The car also contained a dagger, a tomahawk and a wooden baton.
The State's case was that the attack on Mr Casey took place sometime before the car was stopped that evening. Ms Alison McCarthy, nΘe Connors, gave evidence for the prosecution that the gang went to Mr Casey's house to rob it. She said that she and her mother knocked on the front door and then returned to the car when they got no reply.
O'Connor and the other man went around the back and were gone for 15-20 minutes, she said.