A 19-year-old woman was first struck with a heavy wok by a Dingle fisherman and afterwards choked by him because she knew too much about his involvement in drugs, the inquest into her death heard yesterday.
Gerard Graham of John Street, Dingle, Co Kerry, attended the inquest. In his statement, he said that on the afternoon of October 2nd, 1999, in a house in Cork, he and his victim had resumed an argument they had had the previous night. She smirked at him, he flipped and grabbed the wok.
He said he took his daughter to the annual blessing of the boats in Dingle the next day while he had still not decided how to finally dispose of the body
In 2002, Gerard Graham pleaded guilty to the murder of Charlene McAuliffe at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin where he was sentenced to life imprisonment which he is serving at Wheatfield Prison. He attended her inquest yesterday handcuffed to a prison officer.
Ms McAuliffe, originally from Clondalkin, Dublin, had been working in Walkers Bar in Dingle until caught with drugs, her friend Linda McGowan told the inquest in Dingle.
Ms McGowan, a mother-of-four, originally from the Grove, Dingle, and the main witness at the inquest yesterday, told how Ms McAuliffe and Gerard Graham had stayed in her house at 188 Kilnap Place, Farranree, Cork, on October 1st, 1999.
Mr Graham told her Ms McAuliffe "knew too much" about his drug involvement. If he did her in, he would have the money for his drugs deal in Limerick. He said Ms McAuliffe had left Dingle with £3,800.
"He said he would do in Charlene a number of times ... He always said it in a joking manner and that's why I did not take him seriously. I felt he just wanted her out of the country," Ms McGowan said in her statement.
Ms McAuliffe was sitting in a chair in front of the fridge, Ms McGowan nearby. Gerard Graham had come back from upstairs and was smiling. He went over by where her heavy commercial wok was.
"He grabbed the wok and the next thing I remember is Gerard striking Charlene full force with the heavy wok on the head," said Ms McGowan. "I panicked and ran upstairs to my bedroom and jumped on the bed ... I was shocked and couldn't believe what was happening. I though it was all a dream."
She heard four heavy thuds from downstairs - Gerard Graham was beating Ms McAuliffe with the wok. Ms McGowan got out of bed and went down a few steps. She heard Ms McAuliffe trying to say something.
Coroner Helen Lucey, in extending her sympathy to the McAuliffe family, noted they were not present, "presumably because they did want to hear the gruesome details again".