This is not a ‘Cain and Abel’ story, Thomas Dooley murder trial told

At the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, Brendan Grehan SC, defending Patrick Dooley, told the jury that the closing addresses were not a contest between state prosecutor Dean Kelly SC and barristers for the six accused men.

“Let’s be absolutely clear, this is not a contest between ‘Dazzler Kelly’ and the ‘old gun Grehan’,” he said.

Today’s News in 90 Seconds – July 5th

Patrick Dooley (36), who is the younger brother of Thomas Dooley and has an address at Arbutus Grove, Killarney has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 43 year old at Rath Cemetery, Rathass, Tralee, Co Kerry on October 5, 2022.

Patrick Dooley is one of six people accused of murdering the father of seven from Hazelwood Drive, Killarney.

In his closing address for the State yesterday, Mr Kelly said the five family members and teenager had used “medieval violence” to “butcher” the father of seven in “an honour killing” during a funeral, carrying out a “biblical atrocity” that was “as tragic and heartbreaking as it was ridiculous and stupid”.

“Yet for all those heady phrases what was left behind was a widow with seven children in the most pointless, wasteful and needless circumstances,” he added.

Mr Kelly submitted that “honour” had been offended when a relationship between the daughter of the deceased Mr Dooley and one of the accused men had broken down.

It is the State’s case that Mr Dooley died when he was violently attacked as he attended a funeral in Tralee, Co Kerry on October 5, 2022, and suffered what the prosecution has described as savage injuries, inflicted by a group armed with bladed weapons and acting with “focused and murderous ferocity”.

The trial has heard that the deceased suffered a total of four stabbing injuries, one of which severed the femoral artery in his leg and caused him to suffer a fatal blood loss.

State pathologist Dr Sally Anne Collis told the jury that some of the injuries involved could have been inflicted by a machete-type weapon.

In his closing address today, Mr Grehan told the jurors he hoped he wouldn’t be throwing any sand or “magic glitter” in their eyes. He said he agreed with the prosecution to let the evidence be their guide in the case.

Counsel said a lot of humour, a bit of “schmoozing” and “some deprecating stuff” had been thrown into the State’s closing speech. Mr Grehan said this was not a contest amongst advocates and that counsel were here to present each case in the best possible light.

Mr Grehan said he rejected the proposition that this was the biblical “Cain and Abel” story and said his client had always denied he had any involvement in murdering his brother. He said Mr Kelly had referred to Patrick Dooley carrying out a “biblical atrocity” in his closing speech but Mr Grehan emphasised that his client was “no Cainite” and his consistent position throughout was that he hadn’t murdered his brother.

The lawyer said Patrick Dooley’s position was very different from his five co-accused in that he had always said and accepted he was “there in that attack”.

The barrister added: “His purpose in being there was because others were attacking his brother, his flesh and blood and he went to his aid to try and help him. And he has mistakenly, whether unintentionally or intentionally, been cast as one of the attackers in this case.”

He drew the jury’s attention to the prosecution making much in their closing speech of his client’s wife buying him clothes and shoes in Dunnes Stores when he was in hospital after the incident. He said it seemed the prosecution was still contending that this was some “sinister movement” when he was given the clothing around 6pm on October 6.

He said: “You’re in hospital and there is blood all down the front of the clothes you have on, is there anything more natural than that if your clothes are covered in blood and you want to change them. The prosecution are suggesting he is preparing to get rid of his clothes in case there is some kind of forensics on them, that doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny. Everything can be made look sinister if you want to try and portray it in a particular way”.

Going through the evidence in the trial, Mr Grehan said his client had given gardaí a full account when they arrived at Cork University Hospital on October 5. He said the accused had described in some detail what had happened in the graveyard and how he had seen the “Cork lads” on top of his brother and had run in to help him. He said his client told gardaí there were too many “Cork lads to fight off” and that the feud had been ongoing for years.

The barrister said that in his interviews with gardaí, Patrick Dooley spontaneously and without hesitation answered questions posed to him by detectives. He said his answers had “fitted so fully” with what the deceased’s wife Siobhan Dooley had to say and with the other evidence in the case.

He further noted that the prosecution had made a comment in their closing speech that Patrick was “a bit malicious” when he told gardaí in interviews that his brother had a mental illness. The deceased, Mr Grehan said, suffered from depression and was on antipsychotic medication. Counsel said Patrick had spoken about his brother in a very compassionate manner and in very soft, understanding and tender terms. “Not in a malicious dig at a dead man, nothing of the kind,” he said.

Mr Grehan recalled his client telling gardaí that “five or six fellas” were on his deceased brother and he, Patrick had jumped in and got slapped. Counsel said the accused told officers he had tried to pull the men back but it had happened so fast and he could do no more for his brother.

He said his client was the only person who had identified others who were in the graveyard that day yet it was the prosecution’s contention that Patrick Dooley was a liar. He said his client had described the attack in the graveyard in more detail than Ms Dooley had in her account and yet none of this was deemed worthy of any kind of comment from the prosecution when closing its case.

Mr Grehan suggested the case against his client boils down to one simple proposition which was whether the jury was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Patrick Dooley had a weapon in his hand that day. He told the jury they had to be satisfied of that before they could convict his client of murder and submitted that the evidence in regards to this was frail.

“If you are left in doubt, which you have to be, you cannot proceed to convict him of murder,” he said.

Mr Grehan said Patrick was in the middle of it trying to save his brother, not trying to attack him and had received an injury himself. He said his client being accused of using the phrase “come on now boys” had been made out by the prosecution as “a rallying call for the troops”.

“’Come on now boys’ can be as much ‘hold off now boys’,” he said.

Summarising his client’s case, Mr Grehan told the jurors that ultimately they could not be satisfied that Patrick Dooley was guilty of murdering his brother. “He is entitled to the presumption of innocence and he is not as the prosecution suggest a Cainite who murdered his brother and who has to have the ignominy of that following him around for the rest of his days.”

In his closing address, Brian McInerney SC, defending Daniel Dooley, referred to the case of Harry Gleeson who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1941 and hanged, when he was an entirely innocent man.

Ultimately, counsel said an inquiry was established by the government and the report found that he had been convicted on unconvincing circumstantial evidence before eventually being given a complete pardon in 2015.

Daniel Dooley (42) of An Carraigin, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry has pleaded not guilty to murdering Thomas Dooley.

Referring to his client’s case, Mr McInerney said juries have an onerous duty to undertake to avoid a miscarriage of justice. He also said that Daniel Dooley was not forensically connected to anything anywhere in the case, so there was “a great big hole in terms of the forensic picture”.

The four other defendants in the case – the victim’s cousin Thomas Dooley Senior (43) and that man’s son, Thomas Dooley Junior (21), along with Michael Dooley (29), all of the Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Cork and a male teenager – have all pleaded not guilty to murdering Thomas Dooley on the same occasion.

Thomas Dooley Jnr is also charged with assault causing serious harm to Ms Dooley at Rath Cemetery on the same date. He has pleaded not guilty in respect of this count.

Ms Dooley required 45 stitches and 30 staples after sustaining a wound during the attack, which went from her right shoulder and extended to her armpit.

The trial continues on Monday when Thomas Creed SC, defending Thomas Dooley Snr, will give his closing address.