Man found guilty of the murder of Lisa Thompson |
Evidence was heard that Ms Thompson - who was stabbed 11 times in the chest - was dealing prescription drugs from her home.
A murder trial jury has on Thursday afternoon taken just over three hours to find mother-of-two Lisa Thompson's former lover guilty of strangling her with a blind cord and stabbing her to death in her own home.
Evidence was heard that Ms Thompson - who was found with 11 stab wounds to her chest and the blood-stained cord wrapped around her neck - was dealing prescription drugs from her home.
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Six of the wounds had penetrated her heart and two went through and through, which the defence submitted had "an element of overkill" to it.
Brian McHugh with an address at Cairn Court, Poppintree, Ballymun in Dublin 11, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Thompson (52) at Sandyhill Gardens, Ballymun in Dublin 11 on May 9th 2022.
DNAA forensic scientist told the Central Criminal Court trial that the blind cord contained McHugh's DNA, while the prosecution argued that he could be seen on CCTV footage near Ms Thompson's home on the night of the killing.
When asked to account for the presence of his DNA on the cord, McHugh told gardaĂ that he had been "in and out" of Ms Thompson's house "for the last three years".
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The jury has also heard that DNA recovered from jewellery found in the defendant's home also matched that of Ms Thompson.
The 12 jurors took just three hours and 24 minutes to unanimously reject McHugh's defence that Ms Thompson was a "woman of secrets" and that there was more to her killing "than would appear on the surface".
Defence counsel for McHugh, Brendan Grehan SC with Karl Monahan BL, also submitted in his closing address that this was not "the neat case wrapped up in a bow" which the prosecution had presented to the jury.
They instead agreed with Fiona Murphy SC alongside David Perry BL that the prosecution had "meticulously presented a tapestry of circumstantial evidence", where each thread had been interwoven, painting a "compelling picture" of McHugh's guilt.
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Evidence has been given that gardai searching Ms Thompson's home found thousands of prescription tablets worth nearly âŹ50,000 hidden in her attic and that she and McHugh (40) had a "bit of a fling" in the year before she died.
Following the verdict, Ms Justice Karen O'Connor thanked the four men and eight women of the jury for their patience and commitment throughout the trial, saying she was very grateful to them all.
"You should be proud of having carried out your civic duty," she added.
The judge told the jury that as an indication of her appreciation to them for their time given to the case she would excuse them from jury service for the next five years.
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The judge offered her "sincere condolences" to the Thompson family and thanked them for their dignity throughout the trial. "I cannot imagine your pain and what you have suffered in terms of your grief. I want to thank you for the manner you represented your beloved throughout this procedure," she said.
Ms Justice O'Connor will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment to McHugh on March 10 and remanded the defendant in custody until that date.
On that date, the Thompson family will have an opportunity to make a statement to the court about the impact Lisa's death has had on their lives.
McHugh was due to stand trial last year but a pre-trial ruling found that the evidence from two gardai purporting to recognise the defendant from CCTV footage near the deceased's home should be excluded due to their involvement in the investigation.
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However, in what was believed to be the first appeal of its kind, the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal after successful submissions by the State, and as a result the evidence was restored for consideration at McHugh's current trial before the Central Criminal Court.
The jury had watched a CCTV montage of what the prosecution said were the defendant's and a named woman's movements near the deceased's home in Ballymun on the night of the killing.
The prosecutor told the jury in her closing address that McHugh chose to make no comment to gardai when asked to account for his presence at Sandyhill Gardens between 1.25 am and 2.50 am on May 9th 2022 as depicted on CCTV footage.
She said the jury was entitled to draw inference from the fact that McHugh hadn't denied that the identification was accurate.
Evidence was also given that McHugh had received a text message from the named woman saying "I could of been like Lisa today strangle n stab" over a month after Ms Thompson was found dead.
However, a senior investigating officer told the jury that details of the ligature and strangulation injuries on Ms Thompson had not been released into the public domain at the time these text messages were sent.
Other text messages sent from the named woman to McHugh in June 2022 included her saying: "Murder Lisa n al" and "Move the knife did u".
In another text, she said: "Goin in bye I'm at Ballymun station bye I'm tellin" as well as "ur runners n the knife".
In her closing speech, the prosecutor said the named woman was with McHugh before, after and at the time the murder was committed.
She said the named woman had specifically referenced matters she had no reason to know about unless she had some form of "insider information" that Ms Thompson had been strangled and stabbed. Counsel said the woman had referenced in her text the two items which were missing in the case and that the pair of runners seized by gardai from McHugh had no blood on them.
Evidence heardAt the outset of the trial, Sandra McMahon told Ms Murphy that Lisa Thompson was her friend and neighbour. When Ms McMahon was visiting her friend, she would call or text ahead of time and Ms Thompson would open the back gate to her home to let her in.
The witness knew Ms Thompson was dealing prescription tablets from her house and believed she had "maybe five or six" customers. Ms McMahon said Ms Thompson sold the tablets for âŹ15 per tray and would keep them in a black Tommy Hilfiger bag at the side of her bed.
Under cross-examination, Ms McMahon told the defence that customers would call and Ms Thompson would let them in through the back gate. Ms McMahon was also aware that Ms Thompson had put a bag of tablets in the attic of her home.
The witness also said the deceased had once given âŹ20,000 to a mutual acquaintance "in case the house was raided by gardaĂ".
Neighbour Alison Doherty said Ms Thompson and McHugh had "a bit of a fling or some kind of entanglement" the previous year but it had "kind of fizzled out". She agreed with the defence that the pair had got back in touch around a month or two before Ms Thompson died.
GardaĂ were searching Ms Thompson's house on May 12, when they found thousands of prescription tablets worth nearly âŹ50,000 in two sports bags hidden behind a water-tank in the attic.
CCTV FootageThe jury spent several days watching a CCTV montage of what the prosecution said were McHugh's movements at and around Ms Thompson's home on the night of the killing.
In the footage, a named woman is seen driving a Hyundai Tucson into Sandyhill Gardens at 1.24am in the early hours of May 9th 2022. A passenger, who the prosecution contended was McHugh, is seen getting out of the vehicle and walking into Sandyhill Gardens followed by the Hyundai.
A faint light comes on at Ms Thompson's front door at 1.50am. Shortly before 3am the man is seen beside the Hyundai and the vehicle heads in the direction of the Ballymun Road.
It was the prosecution case that McHugh and the named woman then drove to an Applegreen service station on St Margaret's Road in Swords.
The defence accepted it was McHugh in the front passenger seat of the car in the CCTV footage, where he is seen going through a red wallet, which is alleged to have belonged to the deceased, and putting items from it into his pocket.
The defendant was also seen rummaging through a red pillow case, which the State contended was the prominent colour on the deceased's bedding.
Evidence was given that gardaĂ recovered Ms Thompson's house keys and her medication in wasteland beside the same Applegreen service station a week after her body was discovered.
McHugh was also seen in CCTV footage on the night trying to sell jewellery - which the prosecution alleged was linked to Ms Thompson - to a service station cashier.
Store clerk Staven Kadar told the trial that a man, who had "dove tattoos" on his hands and "a sinister vibe", "poured" a "gemmed ring" and other bands into a tray at the pay-hatch and told him he could have "the lot" for âŹ800.
Mr Kadar described one of the rings as being gold with three gems in it.
A search was conducted at McHugh's address at Cairn Court on May 13 2022, three days after the deceased's body was found. Amongst the items seized was jewellery located in a drawer of a bedside locker in the defendant's bedroom.
McHugh had no comment to make when asked by gardai to account for his DNA on Ms Thompson's jewellery.
Jewellery valuationGerard Donohue testified that he was once engaged to the deceased but hadn't spoken to or seen Ms Thompson since their relationship ended 15 years previously.
The witness said he had bought a ring from McDowells Jewellers on O'Connell Street Upper and had left the receipt with Ms Thompson. He said Ms Thompson kept the ring, which was a three-diamond ring with a twisted bar, when they broke up.
Noel Kelly, a store manager with McDowells 'The Happy Ring House' Jewellers, testified that gardaĂ had shown him a valuation receipt for "an 18 carat gold three-stone twist diamond ring" signed by an appraiser and valued at âŹ1,795.
Mr Kelly confirmed the name Gerard Donohue was on the certificate and that it was dated December 2nd 2006.
When a search of the named woman's Hyundai Tucson was carried out on May 17th 2022, a jewellery valuation certificate from McDowell's Jewellers was found in the central console of the vehicle, close to the gearstick.
Fingerprint expert Detective Sergeant Fiona Maguire told the trial she had no doubt that fingermarks on the certificate were made by McHugh's right middle finger and left thumb. A fingermark belonging to the named woman was also found on the certificate.
Two gardaĂ told the trial that they had recognised McHugh on CCTV footage near Ms Thompson's home on the night of the killing from his "big physical stature", "protruding ears" and "very distinctive walking gait".
Detective Garda Cathal Connolly said he had engaged with and observed McHugh on multiple occasions through his police work in Ballymun.
He described the defendant as having prominent ears and swallow tattoos on his hands.
However, the witness agreed under cross-examination by the defence that he had taken statements from witnesses in the case two days prior to viewing the CCTV footage but had not mentioned this to Detective Inspector Donnacha Maguire, who facilitated the identification process.
Sergeant Michael Harkin gave evidence that separate to the identification process, he had prepared an interview plan for suspects in the case and as part of that he had viewed CCTV footage. He said he had recognised McHugh in the footage from his side profile and "very distinctive walking gait".
Detective Inspector Maguire denied to the defence that the "impartiality and independence" that made such an identification process valuable had not happened in the case.
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