Man charged with manslaughter of his father was “in fear” of him, court hears
A 22-year-old man accused of killing his father was “in fear” of a man who he described to gardaí as “a psychopath,” a trial has heard.
Marcus Hannon of Idrone Park, Tullow Road, Carlow, denies the manslaughter of his father Marcus “Murt” Brennan (46) who died on January 27 of 2016 after being stabbed in the leg by Mr Hannon after a row in Mr Hannon’s mother’s house.
Closing arguments in the case were heard today at Carlow Circuit Court and Judge Eoin Garavan will start his charge to the jury on Wednesday. The jury is expected to begin deliberating on Thursday as one juror is not available on Wednesday afternoon.
In garda interviews read out in court, the accused said he reached for a knife which was on a table in his mother Aisling Hannon’s dining room “only when he [his father] picked up the steel [knife sharpener]”.
Detectives interviewed Marcus Hannon several times in the days after Murt Brennan’s death and, in a number of those interviews, the accused said he was “in fear” of his father and that his father’s “reputation preceded him”.
In one interview, Mr Hannon said: “Murt is a psychopath, I know that all my life... He’s come at my with knives more times.”
Asked by gardaí in the station why he stabbed his father more than once in the leg, he said: “It’s Murt. If I had stabbed him in the head he would have come back at me.”
He told gardaí he stabbed Murt Brennan in the leg “because I thought it wouldn’t do him damage”.
The court heard that the stab wound to Mr Brennan’s calf severed an artery, which led to death.
In his closing argument, Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, said the incident started as “a small-time family row” when Marcus Hannon’s mother complained to Marcus “about his domestic skills”
Marcus threw his phone at her, the court heard, and his father Murt Brennan, who was sitting on a couch, became involved.
“It seems to have been, to use the vernacular, a Mickey Mouse row,” Mr Greene told the jury.
A physical altercation broke out and Mr Hannon picked up a knife from a “sheath of knives” on the table and “blows were administered by Mr Hannon, resulting in the death of Mr Brennan”. The knives were cooking knives as Mr Hannon was hoping to train as a chef.
It was “difficult to understand” how Mr Hannon could say his father had raised the knife sharpener first, Mr Greene said, when his father was sitting on the couch in the other room when Mr Hannon and his mother started arguing.
Colman Cody SC, defending, said that it was Aisling Hannon’s account that she saw Murt “going straight for Marcus” and that she saw Murt “raise the knife sharpener” and then saw Marcus with a knife.
“He [Marcus] was left with no alternative but to defend himself from the aggression of his father,” Mr Cody said.
“This was not just verbal aggression, but physical aggression... He felt under threat. He felt in fear of his life... Marcus Hannon is acting in a defensive manner at all times, in the face of the aggression of his father who has an implement at the same time.”
The trial continues.
