A Central Criminal Court murder trial has heard that less than one month before Chrissie Treacy was run over by a teleporter driven by her nephew Michael Scott, a care worker had concerns for her welfare arising out of ongoing difficulties between Scott and his aunt over land.
Susan Keane told Scott’s trial that after telling her coordinator of her concerns she sent an email to her employers telling them that she would have to move on from her duties at Chrissie Treacy’s home because it was inconvenient, she no longer wanted to be in that environment, and she found it “draining”.
Trial hears of argument
Another care worker told the trial that she once heard Scott using a loud voice and banging the table during an argument with Chrissie Treacy.
Caitriona Starr also said that less than two hours before her death Chrissie Treacy was in “good form”, listening to “jazzy music” on her kitchen radio and looking forward to going shopping with her friend Regina Donohue.
The trial also heard that Chrissie Treacy had remarked to Scott “it was strange” that Chrissie Treacy’s missing dog Bradley got out of her home when the doors were locked and that the local priest had prayed at mass for Bradley’s safe return.
It is the prosecution case that Michael Scott deliberately ran over Chrissie Treacy following a long-running dispute over land.
Scott (58) of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co. Galway has pleaded not guilty to her murder on April 27, 2018 outside her home in Derryhiney, Portumna. The defence says that Chrissie Treacy death was a tragic accident.
Susan Keane became upset when she told prosecution counsel Dean Kelly SC about the day Chrissie Treacy’s beloved dog Bradley “vanished off the face of the earth” on February 23, 2018, about two months before her death.
Keane was with Chrissie Treacy that morning until a bus arrived to bring Chrissie Treacy to a daycare centre.
Bradley would usually be lying on a cushion in the kitchen or sitting on a cushion under the range and before leaving Chrissie Treacy would tell him: “Bye Bradley, Mind the house.”
As they left that morning, Keane said the door of the house was locked and Bradley was inside. He was missing when Chrissie Treacy returned home that evening.
The following morning Chrissie Treacy was “utterly devastated,” the witness said. “She was grieving for her best friend. She was very upset, he had just vanished off the face of the earth basically.”
Keane spoke to Chrissie Treacy about an alarm pendant that she wore around her neck because, she said, Chrissie Treacy was “obviously afraid”.
The locks on the doors were changed after that and an alarm system with cameras was installed.
Some time after Bradley went missing Keane said to Michael Scott that “it was strange” that Bradley got out when the doors were locked. She said Scott told her that Bradley had been in the yard 15 minutes before the bus arrived to take Chrissie Treacy to daycare. Keane said she was at the house throughout that time and didn’t think Bradley had been in the yard.
Rubbish
Keane also noticed that up until a few months before Chrissie Treacys death, Scott would take his aunt’s rubbish away but that had stopped and it was piling up in the yard. Scott’s wife had also stopped taking Chrissie Treacy to daycare, she said.
On one occasion Keane was trying to encourage Chrissie Treacy to be more active by walking outside her home but, she said, Chrissie Treacy “didn’t want to go out in case Michael was there”.
On March 23, 2018, just over one month before her death, Keane spoke to her coordinator at Family Carers Ireland about concerns she had “arising from ongoing difficulties between Chrissie Treacy and Michael Scott over land.” She said she had concerns for Chrissie Treacy’s welfare. Her coordinator, she said, was grateful and thanked her for her concern.
About three weeks later Keane emailed her employers telling them that she was going to have to move on from her duties with Chrissie Treacy, saying she no longer wanted to be in that environment and she found it draining.
Trial hears of ‘tension’
Caitriona Starr told prosecution counsel Dean Kelly SC that she started caring for Chrissie Treacy in 2016, doing light housework and preparing her dinner.
She was aware that Chrissie Treacy was on medication for depression, particularly after Bradley disappeared.
When she first started working with Chrissie Treacy, she would meet Scott, his wife and their children from time to time.
Starr noticed “tension” between Scott and his aunt in the year or two before her death and she knew that the tension was “around the issue of land”. Scott, she said, stopped calling to the house.
Carers were in the habit of filling a jug of milk for Chrissie Treacy from a cooling tank in one of the sheds attached to the dairy farm run by Scott. Sometimes she noted that the shed was locked and there would be machinery and trailers in the way leading to the shed. “I used to call it the obstacle course,” she said. “It felt like Mike didn’t want us to get to the milk.”
Chrissie Treacy, she said, was unable to get over the “obstacles” and was “afraid to go outside there”.
Good road
The trial heard there was a “good road” and a “bad road” leading to Chrissie Treacy’s home, the witness said.
Chrissie Treacy, didn’t want cattle coming up the good road because she didn’t want visitors’ cars to get dirty. In the three months before she died, the cows had started to come up the good road, Starr said, adding: “Cows don’t make that decision themselves.”
About six months before Chrissie Treacy, died, Starr heard Scott arguing with his wife. He left when Starr arrived but said something to her about land as he left. Chrissie Treacy was “quite upset”, Starr said. When asked how she knew they had been arguing, Starr said: “I could hear his loud voice and I heard him banging on the table.”
On the day that Chrissie Treacy died, Starr called to her home at about 1.50pm. She had her dinner and a cup of tea with two biscuits that had been bought by Chrissie Treacy,’s friend Regina Donohue. “Regina used to buy cheap biscuits in Aldi and she used to call them mouldy biscuits but she still ate them,” Ms Starr said.
Music
As Starr was leaving at 2.17pm she recalled that Chrissie Treacy was listening to “jazzy music” on Galway Bay FM and waiting for her friend Regina Donohue to take her shopping. “She was in really good form that day and looking forward to going shopping,” she said. Chrissie Treacy, was sitting at her kitchen table with her house keys in front of her. “Since Bradley went she always kept the keys close to her,” she said. “And she always wore the pendant alarm around her neck.”
Starr recalled that on February 17. that year the local priest had prayed at Mass for Bradley’s safe return. “She was so happy about that,” the witness said.
On February 25, Starr spoke to Scott about Bradley and he told her that the dog “went out the window”. Starr said there was “no way the dog went out the window. He was too fat and too lazy. He just wouldn’t be able to get up to get out of the window.”
The trial continues on Tuesday in front of Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and eight women
By Eoin Reynolds