A father of seven children was stabbed to death in a “completely random killing” after parking without permission in a space belonging to the woman accused of his murder, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
The court also heard that after the stabbing, the defendant, Christina Anderson, told her husband: “I did it for us Mark, I did it for us, I did it for love, one of us is insane Mark,” reports The Mirror.
Christina Anderson (41), mother of three, from Brownsbarn Wood, Kingswood, Dublin 24, is charged with the murder of Gareth Kelly (39), who was stabbed to death following an incident on the estate on the morning of February 25 2020. She has pleaded not (NOT) guilty by reason of insanity. Her trial is expected to last two weeks.
Patrick McGrath SC of the Prosecution opened the trial this morning and told the jury that there is no doubt that Ms Anderson killed Mr Kelly. The problem, he told them, will be her state of mind at that moment.
He said Ms Anderson had raised the issue of insanity and therefore the jury will hear testimony from two psychiatrists who disagree about Ms Anderson’s mental state at the time of the stabbing and whether she was suffering from legal madness.
The indictment says she is guilty of murder, which McGrath says is the murder by one person of another “where the acts which caused the killing were carried out with the intention to kill or cause serious injury,” reports The Mirror.
He said the accused person is presumed to be sane and therefore it is up to the defense to prove, based on probabilities, that she was legally insane at the time.
As to the facts of the case, he said that Mr. Kelly, who lived near where Ms. Anderson lived, had parked his car in a space reserved for people who live or stay in Anderson’s house. McGrath said the space was sometimes used by others without permission “to the annoyance of Ms. Anderson.”
At approximately 7 am, Mr. Kelly was driving to work, but was unable to start the car. CCTV footage showed him getting out of the car, raising the hood and plugging in a power supply to charge the battery before getting into the driver’s seat. McGrath said: “The accused is seen coming out of her house in a dressing gown, it would appear she had a brief conversation with the deceased and she stabbed him and then ran back into her own house,” reports The Mirror.
McGrath said security cameras show Kelly getting out of the car clutching her chest and slowly falling to the ground. He added: “The accused is then seen coming out of her own house again and going back to the gap between her car and Mr Kelly’s car and making a number of movements which look like stabbing movements towards Mr Kelly. She is then seen to drop something as she goes back to her own house,” reports The Mirror.
In addition to CCTV, the jury will see footage taken from a neighbor’s cell phone.
Mr. Kelly was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy showed that he died of stab wounds to the upper body.
Gardai went to Mrs Anderson’s home where they heard the defendant tell her husband: “I did it for us Mark, I did it for us, I did it for love, one of us is insane Mark,” reports The Mirror.
Ms. Anderson, he said, is a married mother of three young children. She has a history of psychological or psychiatric difficulties and the jury will hear evidence of her behavior in the days leading up to the murders, her state of mind at the time and some of her beliefs at the time, including “beliefs that she was being persecuted by neighbours”, reports The Mirror.
The trial continues before Judge Karen O’Connor and a jury of seven men and five women.
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