Life sentence for Dublin man who killed mother
A 26-year old Dublin man who killed his mother two years ago was jailed for life yesterday by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
Moses O’Connor, Castlebyrne Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to the murder of Mrs Regina O’Connor at the same address between the dates of 23 and 26 November 2005.
The Central Criminal Court heard that 46-year old Regina O’Connor died a very violent death. She suffered stab wounds to her back, neck and arm, her larynx was fractured and ten of her ribs were broken.
Detective Inspector Martin Cummins told the court that Moses O’Connor, who has 26 previous convictions, was "one of the most disturbed people" he had ever seen in garda custody.
Regina O’Connor came to Ireland after meeting her husband Andrew O’Connor in Rwanda in the mid-1980s. He was a widower in his early 70s who had decided to go on a world tour.
Detective Inspector Cummins said that Moses O’Connor, born in Kenya, was a talented sportsman who developed problems in secondary school, getting involved in drugs and crime and spending time in foster care.
In 2005, at the end of a prison term, he went to live with his mother. In January that year, she took out a barring order against him.
The Inspector said that Mr O’Connor’s relationship with his mother had "totally broken down".
Det. Inspector Cummins said that Regina O’Connor had developed liver problems in 2005 and was attending Tallaght Hospital three days a week for dialysis.
On Thursday November 24, an ambulance arrived at her home to pick her up but there was no answer.
Det. Inspector Cummins said that two gardaí then called to the house and met Moses O’Connor there. They asked him if his mother was at home. He said that she had gone down the country with a friend.
The gardaí then asked Mr O’Connor if they could look around the house. They did so but saw nothing untoward. They also looked into the bedroom, which was not well lit.
On Friday, gardaí again called to the house. Det. Inspector Cummins told the court that one of the gardaí observed that Mr O’Connor appeared edgy.
The gardaí were called the following day by the Tallaght Hospital ambulance, who were concerned about Regina O’Connor because not turning up for dialysis treatment twice in one week would have meant that she would have been in a critical condition.
However, despite knocking on the door, the gardaí could not get in. A neighbour called then to help. Moses O’Connor allowed the neighbour into the house who subsequently found the body of Regina O’Connor on the bed in her bedroom, covered in bedclothes.
Det. Inspector Cummins told the court that, from the outset, Moses O’Connor was "very perturbed, confused and irrational".
He said that Moses O’Connor had played League of Ireland soccer at one point, that he had talent, "but somewhere between primary school and secondary school, his aggression began to show".
"Once he went into prison, he didn’t come out any better," said Det Inspector Cummins, who added that Mr O’Connor had experimented with most types of drugs and that, for much of 2005, he had been living rough, and that he "didn’t have life easy".
Regina O’Connor, originally from Rwanda, was well known in Blackrock for her charity-work and gardening.
She had a barring order out against her son but he was living with her at the time of the murder.
Before her murder, Regina O’Connor had made a will in which it was stated that Moses O’Connor would receive most of her money when he turned 25 but under the strict conditions that he was drug-free.
Mr O’Connor killed his mother shortly before his 25th birthday. Det. Inspector Cummins told the court that a copy of the will was found in Mr O’Connor’s room after the murder.
