Violence level of Castlebar murders was ‘extreme’

EVIDENCE State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, gave evidence at the trial last week.

Blaine brothers suffered ‘severe and extensive’ injuries from Cawley attack

Natasha Reid

GRUESOME evidence heard in the Central Criminal Court yesterday revealed that two Castlebar brothers who were killed in their home suffered injuries that were ‘severe and extensive’.
The court also heard that the defendant, Alan Cawley, admitted in a garda interview that he poured boiling water over Jack Blaine’s genitals and beat Thomas Blaine in his bed because he thought that, as they were living together, ‘maybe’ they were child molesters.
The murder trial also heard details of the extensive injuries suffered by the elderly brothers in what the State Pathologist described as ‘overkill’.
Cawley (30) is on trial at the Central Criminal Court, charged with murdering the Blaines. Both had special needs and speech impediments.
Mr Cawley of Four Winds, Corrinbla, Ballina, has admitted killing the brothers. However, he has pleaded not guilty to murdering them on July 10, 2013 at New Antrim Street in Castlebar.
Sergeant Hugh O’Donnell testified yesterday (Monday) that he interviewed Mr Cawley following his arrest.
He told Denis Vaughan Buckley, SC, prosecuting, that the accused had initially denied involvement. However, he said his memory came back when gardaí showed him CCTV footage of him entering the Blaine home with Jack Blaine.
He said he had gone upstairs looking for sleeping tablets or drugs, but couldn’t find any. He came back downstairs and the man with whom he had entered the house was in the kitchen.
“He was very clingy and he wouldn’t speak properly so I asked: ‘What’s wrong? What are you looking for?’” he said. “I felt the best idea was to show the man that men can’t always get what they want, ... that if I inflicted some pain, it would make up for everything in the past.”
He said that he beat him with a stick before making his way to the front door. However, he saw another man in a bed at the front of the house.
“I thought that if they were living together, maybe that the two of them were child molesters,” he said.
He said he hit this man with a stick about 25 times before returning to the first man.
“I thought it was a fitting punishment to put hot water on his genital area,” he said. He said he did this, after first waiting for a kettle of water to boil.
State Pathologist, Professor Marie Cassidy, carried out the post-mortem exams on both brothers. She testified that each had been the victim of a violent assault.
She gave Thomas Blaine’s cause of death as blood loss, brain trauma, chest trauma, and choking on blood due to blunt injuries to his head, face and chest. Contributory factors were blunt trauma to his limbs and fractures of his Adam’s Apple, right wrist and hand bones.

‘Severe and extensive’ injuries
She outlined ‘severe and extensive’ injuries to his head, neck, chest and limbs. These included ‘significant’ fractures to his skull, which was fragmented in one area, and further fractures of his breastbone, multiple ribs and a bone in each hand.
She said that some of his bruises were in ‘a tramline pattern’ that suggested he had been struck with something long and narrow. It would have also been fairly heavy, she added.
She explained that injuries to his arms were typical of defensive injuries.
The cause of his brother, Jack Blaine’s, death was blunt force trauma to the head, which caused blood loss, brain injury and obstruction of breathing due to facial injuries. A scalding injury and blunt trauma to his chest and limbs were contributory factors.
He had received multiple fractures to his skull. A piece of bone had become embedded in his brain, which was bruised.
One tooth had been dislodged from its socket and was found in his stomach. He had also swallowed and inhaled blood from his injuries. A flap of skin was missing from the back of his right hand, where a gouge had been taken out of the skin, she said.
She noted that there was evidence that his trunk, arms, legs and genital area had been scalded, with the pattern suggesting he was sitting when hot liquid was poured or thrown onto his exposed skin; when found, his upper clothing was pulled up to expose his abdomen and his lower clothing pulled down to expose his genital area.
“Such burns would be extremely painful,” she explained.
Under cross examination by Caroline Biggs SC, defending, she said it was difficult to categorise a type of killing based on the perpetrator’s state of intoxication.

Overkill
“However, in this case there appears to have been what pathologists call ‘overkill’, with numerous injuries, far more than necessary to subdue, overcome or kill a person,” she explained.
“In the majority of cases I deal with, the injuries nowhere reach this extreme degree of violence,” she continued. “In this case, the violence does seem to have been coordinated. There’s evidence of scalding, a very purposeful act.”
While she said that this was ‘a sustained and violent assault’, she noted that the scalding suggested that there had been ‘a break in proceedings’. “It’s an unusual pattern,” she said.
She agreed that, given the lack of ‘cellular reaction’ and the position in which Jack Blaine was found, it was ‘more than likely’ that he was unconscious when scalded.
She was re-examined by Tony McGillicuddy BL, prosecuting, who asked about the level of violence.
“This was the extreme of violence,” she replied.
Yesterday was the fourth day of evidence in the murder trial. The Mayo News reported on the first day of evidence in last week’s edition of July 11, and evidence was also heard on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.
On Wednesday the court heard from care worker, Helen Maloney, who discovered the Blaine brothers bodies at 7.15am on the morning of July 10, 2013.
Ms Maloney told Denis Vaughan Buckley, SC, prosecuting, that she was employed as a Home Help by the HSE and had been caring for the Blaine brothers for around nine years, when they died.
She became emotional when he asked her about her first impression of them. “Two absolute gentlemen,” she replied.
The barrister was then given permission to lead her through her evidence, and put the contents of a document to her.
She agreed with him that they were ‘very vulnerable, reclusive and had speech impediments’. She agreed that Jack Blaine had both a speech and hearing problem, and had a spinal injury from an accident in England many years earlier. He had also suffered from dementia in his last few months. She added that she used to call to see them three times a day, 365 days a year.

‘Two absolute gentlemen’
“They were two absolute gentlemen, a pleasure to look after,” she said. “They gave so much love and respect to me. They’ll be in my mind until the day I die. I loved them dearly, and so did the people of Castlebar.”
She said they were loved throughout the town, where their nickname was ‘The boys’.
She described them jointly as a treasure. “They’d never hurt anybody,” she said. She recalled running out the front door again and shouting: ‘Oh my God’. She said she saw Rocky Moran, the owner of a pub across the road. She described Rocky’s Bar as Jack Blaine’s ‘home from home’, where he could get a cup of tea any time of the day.
“The boys are gone,” she told Mr Moran. He asked her where they’d gone. She told him they were dead and not go to in, that he didn’t want to see what was inside. She said she then got sick. Michael ‘Rocky’ Moran confirmed that Ms Maloney had warned him not to go into the house but that he had gone inside anyway. He described the same scene as Ms Maloney, adding that Jack Blaine was ‘all cut’.
“He was all sliced,” said the publican and undertaker.
“It’s one of the worst sights I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of sights,” he said.
On Thursday, the trial heard evidence from Michelle Nally, bar manager at the Irish House pub in Castlebar, who was off duty and socialising there on the night of July 9. She gave detailed evidence of the bizarre and irrational behaviour of Alan Cawley on the night.
The jury also heard from the last person, besides the accused, to see Jack Blaine alive. Barman at Rocky’s Bar, John Ralph had just delivered a cup of tea to Mr Blaine’s windowsill, when he noticed him with the accused. He told Mr Buckley that he had known the brothers since he was a child.
He said that it was late on the night of July 9, when he brought him his last cup of tea.
“Jack was coming out beside me,” he said. “This gentleman was on my left-hand side.”
He said he crossed the road and left the cup of tea on the windowsill. “I saw this lad again,” he said. It’s accepted that this was Mr Cawley. Once back in the bar, Mr Ralph looked out the window.
“I could hear him asking was he ok,” he recalled. “This lad had his arm on Jack and Jack patted him.” He said he’d always looked to see who was with the brothers.
“I thought this lad was no hassle, bringing him across the road,” he explained.
The full evidence from both Wednesday and Thursday can be read on mayonews.ie. The trial continues this week in Dublin.