Victim's mother wishes murderer 'well'
A life sentence was imposed today on a young Corkman convicted of murder and in an extraordinary moment in court the victim’s mother said that she did not want anything bad to be said against the accused and she wished him well.
The jury in the first murder trial to be held in Cork took three hours to find 20-year-old Frank Cunningham guilty of murdering 26-year-old father of one, Patrick Walsh in the bedroom of his home in Fairhill last year.
Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed the mandatory life sentence on Cunningham at the Central Criminal Court in Cork, after the unanimous verdict. With the minimum of fuss, the victim’s mother, Nellie Walsh, addressed the court in advance of sentencing and had this to say about Cunningham: “I don’t want anything to be said against the boy.”
She then turned in the witness box and spoke directly to the man who murdered her son by stabbing him repeatedly after he broke into her son’s bedroom to rob him.
“I have nothing bad to say about you. I wish you well. Look after yourself and your parents. I am glad your parents are here to support you,” Mrs Walsh said.
She also thanked the seven men and women of the jury, the judge, all of the legal representatives involved in the case and particularly the gardaí who investigated the case.
“We have spent the last 17 months in grief. We couldn’t get on with our lives until this came to some closure,” Mrs Walsh said. Cunningham showed no visible sign of responding to the guilty verdicts handed down on him but he turned to his mother in the public gallery who cried.
Outlining previous convictions of Cunningham in advance of sentencing, Detective Sergeant Denis Cahill said that two hours after murdering Patrick Walsh, Cunningham was committing a robbery at an internet café in the city centre. On the day of his arrest a few days later he had burgled a premises at Oliver Plunkett Street.
Addicted to prescription tablets, Cunningham’s previous crimes included the theft of such drugs from houses during burglaries. He was also previously convicted of assaulting gardai who called to his house.
On the charge of robbing Patrick Walsh, on which the jury also convicted him yesterday, sentencing was adjourned until December 5.
Frank Cunningham, 20, from 71 Bridevalley View, Fairhill, Cork, had pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering Patrick Walsh at the deceased’s home at 62 Fair Hill Drive, Cork, and robbery of cash from the late Mr Walsh in May last year.
Mr Walsh was stabbed four times in the head and six times in the neck with a knife and scissors and was heard to call out for his mother before he died from his multiple wounds.
That was part of the evidence presented by assistant State pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, during the trial.She testified that there was evidence of considerable force being used during the stabbing and that one of the wounds was to the victim’s right hand, consistent with an attempt to defend
himself.
Denis Vaughan Buckley senior counsel for the prosecution said: “The motive for the murder was robbery, a sum of cash was stolen from the deceased.”
Laura Heaphy testified that her then boyfriend, Frank Cunningham, telephoned her and.
“He told me about Patrick Walsh, that him (Cunningham) and two other fellas went to the house for money, that they killed him but they didn’t mean to,” Ms Heaphy said.
The jury watched a video of Cunningham being interviewed by gardai in which the accused said that he stabbed the deceased, punched him twice and stabbed him again.
The detective asked on the video: “Do you think Pa was dead before you left the room?”
Cunningham said: “Yeah… Because you could hear him choking to death and everything. Blood was just gushing out of him. I knew he was dead.”
