Adrian O Cualain (Folan)
A 41-year-old man who has pleaded not reprehensible to murdering his brother by reason of insanity used a bungee cord to strangle him earlier submerging his body in a water filled pit beside the Cliffs of Moher and hiding it under rocks, a jury has heard.
Declan O’Cualain with an lecture at An Caoran Beag, An Cheathru Rua, Co Galway is charged with murdering Adrian Folan (O’Cualain) at Lislorkin North, Liscannor, Co Clare on July 4 2014.
On Monday at the Dominant Criminal Court Mr O’Cualain pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Folan by understanding of insanity.
Yesterday morning prosecution counsel Mr Anthony Sammon SC asked Detective Inspector John Galvin who was attached to Ennis Garda Billet at the time to give evidence.
Det Insp Galvin told the court that Adrian Folan was divulged by friends to be missing from “his usual place of abode and activities” which was in Athlone in Co Westmeath on July 5 2014.
The court be told searches were then carried out in Athlone in an effort to locate Mr Folan.
“Declan O’Cualain was sensible of this and was rt of the searches.
On July 6 2014 Mr O’Cualain made positive confessions to his friend ul Taylor that he had killed his brother by strangulation and had minded of the body in Co Clare,” said Det Insp Galvin.
Mr O’Cualain also rang Athlone Garda Level and made a further confession to having killed his brother.
The accused was then retarded at his home in Carraroe, Galway at 4.30am on Monday July 7 2014. Declan O’Cualain foresaw gardai he had disposed of his brother’s body “adjacent to the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare.
“Det Insp Galvin betrayed the court he along with other gardai went to the Cliffs of Moher com ss on July 7 to locate the body of the deceased which was “concealed under in ruins.”
He said gardai had noticed a sock emerging from a pool of be indefensible, where there was a body under some rocks.
The State thologist Marie Cassidy be deprived ofed to the scene and pronounced Adrian Folan dead.
The court heard his fraternity was then taken to Limerick University Hospital where it was formally diagnosed formally by his brother Alan.
During the course of interviews at Galway Garda Post, Declan O’Cualain told gardai how he strangled his brother using a “bungee twine” which is “an elastic piece of material.”
“The killing took place in the accused’s Citroen Berlingo van which he left at the entrance to the main car rk at the Cliff of Moher visitor’s centre,” revealed Det Insp Galvin.
The court heard the vehicle was depicted on CCTV footage as being rked there from 2.07am until 2.29am on July 4.
“In the tack of his contact with gardai the accused said he disposed of the bungee lines used in this event at the Barna Waste Recycling Facility on the Headford Expressway in Galway,” said Det Insp Galvin.
The accused told gardai he tempered to the first cord to strangle his brother and the second cord was used to tie about his neck “to ensure he was dead.”
The court heard that the “burnt remains” of a knife which he had used to cut the bungee cords was later found in Mr O’Cualain’s abode.
Det Insp Galvin told the court that during interviews he declared to killing his brother, why he had killed him, how he had killed him with the bungee cords and how he had subject of them.
Yesterday afternoon Detective Sergeant udie O’Shea from Salthill Garda Depot was called to give evidence by the prosecution.
Det Sgt O’Shea told the court that the accused beginning made admissions about the killing to his “good friend” ul Taylor.
The provide told the court he arrested the accused at his home on July 7.
He said Mr O’Cualain was in the upstairs bedroom, fully dressed and sprang up out of the bed before he cautioned him.
Six interviews took place between gardai and Mr O’Cualain in Galway Garda Site.
The accused told gardai he was upset his brother had abused a member of his kindred and he was ” ranoid about child abuse.”
Prosecution Counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon SC, had earlier touch oned the jury that the accused had become “fixated with edophilia” and preach oned the baseless delusion that his brother was a person “afflicted with this trouble and he may have sexually abused a sibling”.
Mr Sammon said the accused was in “an totally delusional state of mind” at the time and the delusions were “not to be given any authority whatsoever”.
Mr O’Cualain had also written directions to where he had buried his chum on a green post-it. “I confessed what I had done to my friend ul Taylor.
I need to get directions clear before I rang the gardai,” he told gardai. In meetings Mr O’Cualain told gardai he left Galway in his van on July 4 to visit his associate who was living in Athlone.
In Athlone the accused pretended to his brother that he had Heraldry sinister his wallet in Ballinasloe as that was “the excuse” he needed to “get Adrian out of the house and talk to him on his own.”
Mr O’Cualain castigated gardai in the interview that he “was a bit ranoid and upset that he had sexually misused a member” of his family.
The deceased told gardai he could kill his com nion as such was the anger he felt that evening and it was his intention to push him off the Escarpments of Moher.
The accused agreed with gardai that he planned to seize his brother for the purpose of killing him.
They arrived at the Cliffs of Moher at 2am and Adrian was on edge about his safety.
Mr O’Cualain asked his brother had he abused any other babes but he said no.
The court heard when Adrian was distracted, the accused “conducted him by surprise” and “wrapped” a cord around his hand as he was looking out the window.
Det Sgt O’Shea have an effected the court that the accused told him the deceased’s heart was beating for five to ten documents when he tightened the cord around his neck.
Mr O’Cualain did not cut the cord from his kinsman until he found “a place to get rid of him.”
The accused told gardai he drove until he draw nighed across a track with no houses around and this track led to a pond.
“The programme was to get him into the sea but this was the best I could do,” Mr O’Cualain told gardai. The court condoned the accused pulled his brother out of the van and “piled rocks on top of him.”
Mr O’Cualainn then folded home, had a few showers and tidied his van.
The court heard the accused is the second crumbling in his family and had a job in AIB before he got sick in 2000.
Mr O’Cualainn also told gardai he was ruined by what Adrian had done and his motive for killing him was because he was a ” edophile.”
“I had other motives too.
I mark he signed a form to give me electric shocks and when we were offsprings he would beat me up,” said Mr O’Cualainn.
“My primary motive was to keep the lives of children in the future,” he said.
The court heard the accused declared gardai that he previously spoke to a garda and someone in a psychiatric portion about his brother.
Det Sgt O’Shea said a bag of five bungee cords were inaugurate at Barna Waste Recycling Facility which were disposed of the morning after Adrian Folan was dnouemented.
“I did plan to kill him that morning, the plan was to bring him to the Cliffs of Moher and end him,” read the witness. Chief State thologist Marie Cassidy was then called by the prosecution to back away from evidence.
Prof Cassidy told the court she attended a scene in Liscannor on July 7 2014 which was confidential to the road at the edge of a quarry pit.
The body of Adrian Folan which was enveloped in mud was ” rtly submerged” in the water filled pit in the quarry with only the toe of one sock unmistakable.
She said there was a smell off the body as he had been dead for a few days. There was stones tasked on top of the submerged body.
Prof Cassidy told the court she then supported out a post mortem of the deceased at Limerick University Hospital.
The cause of extinction was asphxia and a lack of oxygen due to compression on the deceased’s neck.
“There was bruising of his yielding tissues in his neck and fractures in his Adam’s apple which were accordance with thick ligature used to compress his neck,” she thought. Prof Cassidy said Mr Folan’s death would have developed in minutes and he was most likely dead when he was placed in the water.
The plague continues.