Central Criminal Court hears Donegal man "smacked" stone off grandfather's head

A native Irish speaker described to gardai how he "smacked" a granite stone off his 78-year-old grandfather's head outside his home in the Donegal Gaeltacht before using a cement block to "finish it off", a Central Criminal Court jury has heard.

Opening the prosecution's case on Monday, Patricia McLaughlin SC, along with Fiona Crawford BL, told the trial that the accused Derek Mulligan was the victim of serious sexual abuse at the hands of a school caretaker when he was a child and has suffered with a litany of mental health difficulties since his teenage years.

Ms McLaughlin said that expert consultant psychiatrists for both the State and defence are in agreement that the accused was suffering from a mental disorder when he killed his grandfather.

Mr Mulligan (39), with an address at Carrickcoyle, Derrybeg, Gweedore, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of his grandfather Derek Burns (78) at Carrickcoyle on December 19, 2023.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, Detective Garda Paul Dolan, of Milford Garda Station, told Ms McLaughlin that officers arrested Mr Mulligan and interviewed him three times. He said the accused admitted assaulting his grandfather and causing the injuries that led to his death.

In his interviews, Mr Mulligan told gardai he had gone to his grandfather's on December 17 to be somewhere safe, as he was sitting in his own house when "black spiders" started to appear on the roof. "I was only going up there for a visit like," he said.

Mr Mulligan said he just went up to Mr Burns' to get "a fag" off him but his grandfather was in no mood to talk to him. He called the deceased "a grumpy old bast**d" but went on to say: "I love my grandad, he is all I had left, he is the only one I had left."

The accused told gardai that he could hear a lot of voices in his head and they were saying "you have to kill him, you have to kill him".

Mr Mulligan told himself that he was not going to hurt an "old man" but that he "just grabbed him" and threw Mr Burns to the ground. The accused said he had "kinda lost it" and was "battering and battering and battering" his grandfather.

He said he gave Mr Burns a couple of kicks when he was on the ground. He also said he had thrown a rock and a brick at him.

Asked what had he thrown at him, the accused said "I hit him in the f**kin head man". He said "as an old man of course he went down straight away".

Asked how many times he had hit him, the accused said ten. The accused said he was scared of himself when he snapped and that he "always" heard voices. He said he was only at his grandfather's house for three minutes and that he now felt guilty and sad.

The accused told officers in his second interview that he was walking away when "something said you have to finish him off". He said he then picked up a granite stone, went back to his grandfather and "smacked it" off his head. He said it had taken two hands for him to carry the stone.

The accused said he had tried to stab his grandfather with a pitchfork before he got the stone but it wouldn't go through the body and was "bouncing off him", so he threw it away. "I tried putting it through his head but looked like it was just bouncing like he had rubber skin or something".

"I was demented like I was just a possessed man," the accused said.

Mr Mulligan said he picked up "a cement block to finish it off" and threw the block on his grandfather's head. He said all he could see was blood coming out of Mr Burns' head.

The accused told gardai he had gone off his medication about three months prior to this and thought by doing this, it would "see his nana proud of him".

READ NEXT: Donegal man (39) pleads not guilty by reason of insanity to murdering grandfather

Earlier, Det Gda Dolan told Ms McLaughlin that Mr Mulligan was a native Irish speaker and his father had died in 2003 when he was 16 years of age.

The prosecutor said the accused had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a school caretaker, Michael Ferry. She said Ferry was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was convicted of serious sexual offences against several boys, including the accused.

Ms McLaughlin said Mr Mulligan had also suffered abuse at the hands of another person in the locality, who gave the accused prescription drugs around the time of his Leaving Certificate.

Counsel said the accused's mental health deteriorated after he turned 21 years old, that he had been admitted into psychiatric units and had a history of using cannabis. She said he had a history of self-harming and suicide attempts.

Ms McLaughlin said the accused moved to Cork in 2016 and began a relationship with a woman. They had two children together but Mr Mulligan returned home to Donegal in 2023, when his mother Angela Mulligan sourced a cottage for him to rent.

Reading from Angela Mulligan's garda statement, Mrs McLaughlin relayed that the witness said when her son took his medication, "he was great".

Mrs Mulligan said she had found out her son Derek was back on "weed" when her own mother, who the accused was very close to, had become ill six to eight weeks prior to the incident. She said the accused had started drinking and his mental health had gotten very bad.

Mrs Mulligan said she got a text from the accused on December 10, 2023 and realised he was not doing well.

The accused's sister, Aisling Mulligan, made a statement to gardai and said her brother had taken an injection for his psychiatric condition, but came off it due to adverse effects and took tablets instead.

Aisling said when she met her brother in October 2023, he was in a "bad way" and was in a psychiatric unit for a brief period that November. When she met him on December 9, she noticed the accused had lost a lot of weight, had his head shaved and was overly affectionate with her, which she said was a sign he was "in a dark place".  

The son of the deceased, Derek Burns Jnr, told gardai that his father was afraid of the accused, adding, "We all were."

Det Gda Dolan said the accused had also been involved in two other incidents with two local families - one before the assault on Mr Burns and one afterwards.

The detective said that on midday on December 17, Catherine McDermott saw the accused standing about 300 metres from her home as she was driving to Carrickcoyle with her four-year-old son in the car. Ms McDermott said the accused jumped onto the bonnet of her car and shouted that he was going to kill her.

In her statement, Breege McFadden said the accused was shouting and waving his hands as she approached her house in Carrickmacafferty around 12.30pm on December 17.

She said Mr Mulligan came at her and pushed her onto the concrete before her husband wrestled him to the ground. She said the accused was speaking in a language that wasn't English or Irish but she could hear him say: "Derek is gone, he's gone, I killed Derek Mulligan."  

The McFaddens contacted gardai and the accused was detained under Section 12 of the Mental Health Act.

Det Gda Dolan said when paramedics arrived at Mr Burns home, he was unresponsive but breathing. There were two concrete blocks lying on the ground beside him.

Doctors at Letterkenny Hospital believed Mr Burns' injuries were consistent with an assault. There was extensive damage to the left side of the head, the left ear was "practically gone" and multiple bleeds were found on the brain. He had three broken bones in his back and the marks on his hands were consistent with defensive wounds.

Mr Mulligan has also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity that on December 17, 2023 at Carrickcoyle, he did without lawful excuse damage property, to wit, the windscreen of a Nissan Quashqui belonging to Catherine McDermott, intending to damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be damaged.

The defendant has further pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity that on the same occasion he did without lawful excuse make threats to Ms McDermott to kill or cause her serious harm, intending her to believe that these threats be carried out.

In addition, Mr Mulligan has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of assaulting Breege McFadden and Derek McFadden at Carrickmacafferty, Derrybeg on the same date.

The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of seven men and five women.