The close-knit extended family of Kilkenny man John Mackey (87) were devastated by his murder in London in May, but for his nephew Steven Mackey, who is in his 50s, it had an especially terrible resonance.
It is said history often repeats itself within families. Sometimes it goes a step further.
In 1997, the younger Mackey was brutally assaulted on the street. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and nearly died. But he clung stubbornly to his future. These days, an echo of the attack remains in each step: the brain injury he fought to overcome still affects his mobility and speech.
The elder Mackey was also beaten on the street. In May this year he was savagely stomped and pummelled by an assailant who also robbed his shopping. This time, history took a fateful extra step. He died two days later of a brain injury.
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Peter Augustine (59) was this week convicted of the Irishman’s murder. As Steven Mackey sat with his cousins through the distressing two-week trial of the man who killed their beloved uncle, he also had to relive the memory of his own trauma.
“What really got to me was hearing what shopping he had,” said Steven Mackey. “The cottage pie [that Augustine stole from John Mackey after attacking him] – he bought that for me to cook for him the next day.”
Steven, who over the years had lost all his immediate family, was particularly close to “Uncle John”. He visited him often at his Manor House flat, especially in latter years as the older man experienced the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
“He was a good uncle to me. When I got my brain injury back then, he was there every day in the hospital with my dad.”
Like Steven’s late father Christy, John Mackey left poverty in Callan, Co Kilkenny, for London, a young man looking for a better life. Most of the 11 Mackey siblings did the same. Some returned to Ireland, others settled around north London.
John Mackey had been a postman in Callan. He left in 1956 aged 19. Like many of his compatriots, he got a job in Pye Electronics.
He never married but, according to his family, the suave, charismatic Irishman enjoyed the company of ladies all of his life. In his final year he was rumoured to have struck up a friendship with a “widow from Cockfosters”.
“He was an enigma. He was mysterious, charming – always up to something, always ‘doing a bit of business’,” said Pat Schan, Mackey’s niece, who also sat through the trial at the Old Bailey. Her mother was his sister Mary.
He never had children, but Mackey was close to his 22 nieces and nephews – 10 surviving in Britain, nine in Ireland, one in Australia. He also had four surviving siblings aged in their 80s. The extended family in Ireland and elsewhere remained close.
“Uncle John was interested in all of his nieces and nephews, devoted to us. He knew about all of our lives,” said Schan. Even as adults, he would “slip them a fiver” and wink.
Many of the extended family were Arsenal fans, due to the area of north London where they first settled. Mackey was a devoted “Gooner”. For years he bought Steven Mackey Arsenal match programmes when the younger man found it difficult to get out due to his injury.
Katy Noone, another niece who attended the trial, recalled the last time she saw John Mackey in February. She visited with her brother Gary Noone. Their mother was Kitty, the eldest in the family. Mackey had stayed independent despite his Alzheimer’s. When they arrived at his flat, he was already immaculately dressed.
“He was so happy to see us. It was just an ordinary Tuesday morning, but he had a shirt and tie on. He was wearing a pullover and jacket. When he answered the door he had his trademark trilby hat in his hand. He took such pride in his appearance.”
He was similarly impeccably dressed on May 6th, the day of his fateful encounter with Augustine.
Augustine was born in 1966 in Islington, a few miles from the area around Finsbury Park where Mackey lived most of his adult life after leaving Kilkenny.
Augustine told his trial he had worked at odd jobs over the years – as a panel beater, in a dry cleaners, in charity shops. But, especially in his younger years, he also had a track record of criminality and violence.
Aged 20 he was convicted for robbery. Four years later he went to prison for assault causing harm. In 1994 he was convicted for grievous bodily harm.
In his 50s his penchant for violence returned. In 2016 he was convicted for battery; in 2018 for insulting and verbally abusive behaviour; in 2022 for racial and religiously aggravated criminal damage. His last conviction was this year for theft.
Augustine’s volatile character would become evident in his erratic, aggressive behaviour in the courtroom throughout his two-week murder trial.
On May 6th last, Mackey left his flat at 5pm and headed for local shops. He wore his trademark trilby, his smart trench coat buttoned up. He carried a black holdall.
Augustine, meanwhile, was also in the area that day. He was effectively homeless after losing his long-term accommodation in Archway a few weeks before. One of his three sisters had been paying for him to stay in budget hotels for a few days at a time. In early May, he stayed at the Beaconsfield Hotel on the other side of Finsbury Park.
CCTV captured Mackey arriving at a local Co-Op mini-supermarket. He bought a newspaper, cornflakes and the cottage pie that he wanted his nephew Steven to cook for him the following day. Mackey, who walked with a stick, then made his way to the local Manor Kebab outlet, where he queued to buy a takeaway of sausage and chips.
Augustine had already spotted the frail, vulnerable Irishman crossing the road. He loitered outside pretending to be on his mobile as Mackey was inside. As he made his way home, Augustine tailed him. He pounced at about 5.52pm in a secluded walkway surrounded by bushes yards from Mackey’s home.
CCTV did not capture the actual attack, but one witness heard a man shout “give me the bag”. Another noticed saw a man “continually” stomping and punching someone on the ground. Another person nearby could make out through the bushes a man raining down “fierce” blows. One witness saw him rifling Mackey’s jacket.
Augustine was filmed on CCTV leaving the scene with Mackey’s bag. He was heard to say “f***ing b*****d” as he left. He walked through Finsbury Park, where he claimed in court he cried on a bench for taking an old man’s bag of food.
He always denied hitting Mackey, although the jury didn’t believe him. There was nobody else in the walkway.
Augustine arrived back in his hotel at 6.22pm. Detectives later found him by tracking CCTV. Mackey, meanwhile, had regained consciousness on the walkway, where he was aided by witnesses. He died of his severe head and chest injuries two days later.
On May 8th, Augustine was arrested for murder at the Beaconsfield. In his room, number 24, officers found Mackey’s newspaper and cornflakes, the empty cottage pie wrapper and takeaway carton. The killer had eaten what he stole.
He tried to turn his trial into a circus. Some days he would not show up, refusing to leave his cell in Belmarsh prison. On others, he would show up but continually interrupted by shouting at lawyers and the judge. He insisted he had no psychiatric problems.
“I never hit the gentleman,” he shouted over and over. “I just took the bag and I ran.”
“I’m fighting for my life here,” he once roared. Augustine banged the witness box while giving evidence. At one stage he shouted at the jury: “Convict me. I’ll die in prison.”
He also leaned out of the witness box, spraying spittle in the faces of lawyers. The judge gave him leeway, but eventually he was excluded from court.
Mackey’s nieces and nephews had to endure all of this in court. They watched patiently, mostly silently. Occasionally they got upset. But they kept most of it in.
Relief came with the verdict. Mackey’s nephew Adrian Kennedy clasped his hands in a prayer sign of thanks towards the jury. Some of the family shouted “Yes”.
There were tears, thanks, hugs for the prosecution barristers. Even from niece Margaret Kennedy. “And I am never a hugger,” she said, smiling through the tears, the pain of loss and joy of the release both written across her face.
Steven Mackey was also overcome. John Mackey had been there for him when he needed him. Now, with his cousins, he had seen justice delivered for their “perfect” uncle.
