A Donegal woman denied attempting to kill her neighbour but pleaded guilty to stealing and assaulting him in a case described yesterday as "classic, traditional Irish".
Mrs Margaret McCole (43), of Magherard, Drung, Quigley's Point, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty in the Central Criminal Court to unlawfully and maliciously causing Mr William Harrigan of Magherard Lane, Drung, grievous bodily harm with intent on May 9th, 1996. Mrs McCole pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder Mr Harrigan, who was 83 at the time of the assault and who was in court yesterday.
She further admitted to entering Mr Harrigan's cottage on May 9th with a claw hammer, and stealing £340.
She also pleaded guilty to charges of fraudulently converting £2,000 on December 21st, 1995 at the AIB branch in Carndonagh and £700 on February 6th, 1996 at AIB, Moville, both part of a £5,000 sum Mr Harrigan entrusted to her safe-keeping.
Mr Gregory Murphy SC, prosecuting, told the jury that these were sample charges and that it was agreed that over a period of time "Mrs McCole had purloined all of the £5,000 save £20". The money was due to be given to Mr Harrigan's niece, Mrs Betty Corr. It was, Mr Murphy said, "a classic, traditional Irish case", involving land and a row about it in a remote area.
The court heard Mr Harrigan was a bachelor farmer and former fisherman who lived alone in a cottage on his 20-acre farm on the Inishowen Peninsula. His neighbours included Mrs McCole who along with a relative had provided daily meals for him. "There can be no doubt that Mrs McCole was a good neighbour," said Mr Murphy, but it was the prosecution's contention that "things seemed to have changed" in December 1995.
Eighteen months before the night of his assault, Mr Harrigan had left his house and land to his second cousin in a will he wrote in the presence of his solicitor. But in December 1995, Mrs McCole pointed out that because she was looking after Mr Harrigan, the land should be left to her instead. He later changed his will to that effect.
It was then too that Mrs McCole had gone with Mr Harrigan to the AIB, Moville, where he withdrew £5,000. Mrs McCole lodged it in an account under her name on the same day, convincing Mr Harrigan that it would be unsafe to keep it at home. Mr Harrigan gave evidence before the jury that he had intended to give his niece the money and that Mrs McCole had taken it "to mind it for me".
Mr Harrigan, who used a walking stick and was assisted to the witness box, agreed that following the assault on May 9th he had changed his will again, removing Mrs McCole as the beneficiary. Asked why he had done so, he replied: "I couldn't tell you the reason. I didn't know of any."
Of the assault, he said, "I don't remember it rightly" but agreed "I was beat up in my own house". Asked who did it, he said: "I couldn't tell you, it's a mystery to me."
Mrs Corr told the court she lived in Massachusetts, and that in the past few years she had become friendly with her uncle and he had visited her in the US.
On May 9th, Mrs McCole arrived at the guesthouse she and her husband were staying in and told her of the attack on her uncle. Later that day, she accompanied Mrs McCole to the emergency ward at Letterkenny Hospital to see him.
On the way, Mrs McCole stopped at the Moville bank and then handed Mrs Corr £300, saying it was money Mr Harrigan intended for her.
Both prosecution and defence agreed that the accused had applied for a £7,000 loan from the First National Building Society in Moville on May 2nd, 1996. The trial continues today before Mr Justice Quirke.