The murder trial of a father who shot his son dead as he lay asleep in bed opened in the Central Criminal Court yesterday.
Mr Michael O'Brien (59) of Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murdering his son, Mr Fergus O'Brien (28), on October 16th, 1997.
The father told the jury he shot his son because he "couldn't take another day" of his son's drinking, which was causing mayhem and chaos in the family.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Ms Maureen Clarke SC told the court this was an "extraordinarily tragic case" of "Greek dimensions". The accused man had lived in north Dublin with his wife and two sons, one of whom had a "serious drink problem", making him almost impossible to live with.
After a lengthy drinking session, that son arrived home so drunk he was unable to open the front door. His father got out of bed to let his son in and made him tea. Later his son knocked on his bedroom door demanding his bottle of whiskey and saying somebody had stolen it.
After finding the whiskey and going back to bed the father slept very badly. In the morning he took a double-barrelled shotgun from his car and discharged two shots into his son's back, one of which severed the aorta.
In a statement allegedly later given to gardai, Mr O'Brien said: "I fired at his left side. I fired both barrels," after which his son "jumped up" and said "what are you doing to me?"
"I panicked. I started screaming and running around the house," the statement read. Asked why he shot his son, Mr O'Brien allegedly replied: "I don't know. I just don't know. It all just got the better of me. He was always causing rows."
Mr Frank Harrington told the court Mr O'Brien telephoned him soon after the shooting. "He told me he was in trouble and that he had shot his son," Mr Harrington said.
Mr O'Brien allegedly told him: "It's terrible, I don't know what came over me. I shot my son, I'm demented. What have I done? I've killed my son. I love him."
Mr Harrington said that after he arrived at the O'Brien home, he asked Mr O'Brien if his son was alive or dead. "He said he was dead. I felt for a pulse and couldn't find any. There was a trickle of blood coming down from his mouth." Mr O'Brien was hysterical and very distressed, he said.
The trial before Mr Justice Smith and a jury of seven men and five women resumes today.