The jury in the trial of a 42-year-old woman accused of being the getaway driver for the murderer of Lisa Thompson has begun watching CCTV footage of what the prosecution says are the defendant’s movements in the days before the mother-of-two was found dead at her home.
Deirdre Arnold, with an address at Briarfield Grove, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, is charged that on a date between May 9th, 2022, and May 10th, 2022, both dates inclusive, at a location within the State, she did without reasonable excuse an act with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of Brian McHugh, a person who had committed an arrestable offence, namely murder, while knowing or believing McHugh to be guilty of the offence or of some other arrestable offence.
Ms Arnold is also charged that on a date between May 9th, 2022, and May 10th, 2022, both dates inclusive, at a location within the State, she acted or embarked upon a course of conduct which had a tendency to and was intended to pervert the course of public justice.
In her opening speech on Monday, counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions Fiona Murphy SC said the jury will hear evidence that the accused drove murderer Brian McHugh to the deceased’s home, where she waited outside “for well over an hour” before driving him away from the scene and later checking him into a hotel in an effort to help him evade prosecution.
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‘I grew up in an apartment in another country. I bought an apartment in Dublin and had to get out after a year’
‘Our daughter is almost 40 and moving out soon, but she has told her son that he can stay with us’
It is also the prosecution’s case that she allowed her vehicle to be used to dispose of evidence taken from the deceased’s home.
Garda Michelle Purcell, from the Divisional Technical Support Unit, on Tuesday began taking Ms Murphy through a montage of CCTV footage showing a woman driving a silver Hyundai Tucson on the evening of May 8th.
Ms Murphy said it is the prosecution’s case that this woman is Deirdre Arnold. She said the first piece of footage was taken from an address in Briarfield Grove which the jury has heard is Ms Arnold’s address.
Garda Purcell showed footage of the car’s movements, including interactions between a man and woman at various locations, over the next hour and 57 minutes.
Earlier, Chief State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan gave evidence to Ms Murphy that she had carried out a postmortem on the deceased on May 11th, 2022.
Dr Mulligan said a cord that appeared to be from a blind was around the deceased’s neck and there were multiple stab wounds on the left side of the chest, centred on the area above where the heart is located.
Crossing over at the front of the neck was the cord of a window blind with a free end which appeared torn, said Dr Mulligan. The pathologist said there was a thin, pale band with some areas of abrasion which travelled around the back of the neck almost horizontally.
Dr Mulligan said on the left side of the front of the chest there was a group of 11 stab wounds covering an area 7cm vertically by 10cm horizontally.
She said there were six stab wounds to the heart, two of which were through and through injuries, and further stab wounds in the left lung, one of which was also a through and through wound.
The stab wounds had one blunted end and one pointed end and there was no evidence of any serrated abrasions, suggesting the stab wounds were caused by a knife or a knife-shaped object, said the pathologist.
Dr Mulligan said there were also numerous areas of haemorrhage around the neck. She said both the asphyxiation due to strangulation and the multiple stab wounds to the heart and chest were fatal injuries and it was very difficult to say which occurred first.
Bloods taken for analysis showed evidence of fluoxetine, an antidepressant and a separate, antipsychotic drug. Dr Mulligan said the combination of multiple sedative drugs could have affected Ms Thompson’s actions and reaction, but the deceased may have had some tolerance if she had been taking them regularly.
In conclusion, Dr Mulligan said death was caused by a combination of ligature strangulation causing asphyxia and multiple stab wounds to the chest with no contributing factors.
On Tuesday morning, John McDonagh told prosecuting counsel he was a born-again Christian who had known Ms Thompson for six or seven years after meeting her through one of her neighbours.
He said the last time he had seen Ms Thompson was the Friday before she died, when she called into his home for a “quick visit”. He said he spoke to her on the Sunday evening at about 7pm and said she was in “great form”.
Mr McDonagh said he was aware that McHugh “had a fling” with Ms Thompson about a year before she died. He confirmed to Ms Murphy that he told gardaí that about two or three weeks prior to her death, McHugh had reappeared and was in contact with Ms Thompson by text.
The trial continues on Wednesday before Mr Justice Patrick McGrath and a jury of seven men and five women.
