Farmer accused of killing brother after burial row
A 63-year-old Wicklow farmer has gone on trial today, accused of fatally shooting his brother in a row over their mother's burial.
Cecil Tomkins, with an address at New Lodge Nursing Home, Rathfarnham has pleaded not guilty to murdering Walter Tomkins at Cronlea, Shillelagh on July 1, 2010.
The jury heard that Walter Tomkins arranged his mother Isabella's funeral and her burial beside her husband Joseph in Aghold in June 2010.
His younger brother Cecil Tomkins did not attend the service and afterwards told the reverend he was unhappy because his mother had wished to be buried in Gorey.
It is the prosecution's case that he was so upset, the 63-year-old shot his brother in the chest with a shotgun on July 1 of that year.
A nephew Alan Tomkins has given evidence that Cecil came out to the field in a tractor and told him that he had carried out a shooting and that Walter was still groaning and to call 999.
The jury heard that they will hear evidence that emergency services pronounced Walter Tomkins dead at the house and that a doctor at the scene found Cecil Tomkins, who has Parkinson's disease, to be quite calm with no signs of agitation.
