The Central Criminal Court has heard that a friend of Chrissie Treacy encouraged her to move into a retirement home “for her safety” before the 76-year-old was killed by a teleporter driven by her nephew Michael Scott, who denies her murder.
It is the prosecution’s case that Michael Scott (58) of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co. Galway deliberately ran over his aunt Christine ‘Chrissie’ Treacy.
Regina Donohue has told Scott’s trial that in the weeks and months leading up to Chrissie Treacy’s death, there was damage done to fencing on a farm she owned, her oil heating was switched off on a cold night, and her dog Bradley vanished, never to return.
On one occasion Regina Donohue said she was present when Scott “stormed into” Chrissie Treacy’s home and asked “where the f*ck were you?” after the deceased had gone out to celebrate her birthday.
Donohue said a previous arrangement whereby Scott would bring Chrissie Treacy’s rubbish to be collected at the end of her road had stopped three months before she died. The rubbish, Regina Donohue said, was piling up in a shed.
Trial
Regina Donohue told prosecution senior counsel Dean Kelly that due to the “ongoing difficulties” she was experiencing, Ms. Donohue encouraged her friend to move into a retirement home in Portumna “for her safety”.
Chrissie Treacy wanted to stay at home, she said, and her friend understood that.
Regina Donohue also told Dean Kelly that on the day that Chrissie Treacy died, Scott was to receive a letter from an agricultural consultant telling him that Chrissie was applying for a single farm payment on land she owned but had previously leased to Scott.
Regina Donohue agreed with counsel that the accused “wasn’t happy” about Chrissie Treacy’s plans to partition her land from land owned by Scott.
It is the prosecution’s case that Michael Scott deliberately ran over Chrissie Treacy following a long-running dispute over land.
Scott has pleaded not guilty to her murder on April 27, 2018 outside her home in Derryhiney, Portumna. The defence says that the woman’s death was a tragic accident.
Gerard Lahart told the prosecution senior counsel that he is a vet based in east Galway and knew the Treacy family for about 20 years.
He described them as respectable country people and said Chrissie was a generous person who would give him a gift of a goose every Christmas.
The vet attended the farm at Derryhiney on the day that Chrissie Treacy died to test Michael Scott’s cattle for tuberculosis (TB).
While there, he said he saw the teleporter parked in a green shed near Chrissie Treacy’s home and he met Michael Scott. The vet said that Scott was relieved when the tests for tuberculosis proved negative.
Gerard Lahart arrived at Derryhiney at about 11:20a.m, went to Scott’s other farm at Gortanumera at about 12:30p.m and left from there at about 1:00p.m, the court was told.
The trial continues today (Thursday, February 16) in front of Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and eight women.
By Eoin Reynolds