A counsel has informed the Central Criminal Court that a 36-year-old man who is on trial for murder would confess to strangling his partner to death in the Co Meath home they shared, reports RTE.
Senior Attorney Sean Guerin began Andrei Dobra’s trial on behalf of the prosecution by informing the jury that it will need to decide whether or not Mr. Dobra had a mental illness at the time of his death of Ioana Mihaela Pacala, 30, in the trial.
According to Mr. Guerin, the accused and Ms. Pacala, who are both citizens of Romania, recently moved into a duplex residence in Ratoath and were romantically involved.
On November 12, 2022, Mr. Dobra admitted to a lady over the phone that he “thought he had killed Ioana”. The female made emergency services contact, reports RTE.
Mr. Dobra was “calm in appearance” when the gardaà came, according to Mr. Guerin, and he showed them where Ms. Pacala’s body was—in a bedroom of their house.
Mr. Guerin said that an ambulance crew that came at the same time would claim that she was “clearly dead” and that there were signs indicating she had been dead for some time, reports RTE.
Dr. Margaret Bolster, the state pathologist, came to the conclusion that Ms. Pacala had been strangled and had died from a cerebral oxygen shortage.
According to Mr. Guerin, the defence will confess to a number of things, one of which being that on November 12, 2022, at an undisclosed hour, Mr. Dobra strangled Ms. Pacala at their residence on Riverwalk Court, Fairyhouse Road in Ratoath.
The accused has pled not guilty by reason of insanity, according to lawyers, and two doctors summoned by the prosecution and defence will testify that Mr. Dobra had a mental illness at the time of the murder, reports RTE.
According to Mr. Guerin, the accused’s claim of “suffering from an irresistible compulsion or total absence of reason” entitles him to a special finding of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Additionally, he informed the jury that a person who willfully kills someone may be found guilty of manslaughter under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act rather than murder because of lessened culpability brought on by a mental illness, reports RTE.
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