Mother-of-two Lisa Thompson, who was strangled and stabbed to death in her own home, was a "woman of secrets" and there is more to her killing "than would appear on the surface", lawyers for the man accused of her murder have told a jury.
Defence counsel for Brian McHugh, Brendan Grehan SC, also submitted in his closing address today on Tuesday that this was not "the neat case wrapped up in a bow" which the prosecution had presented to the jury.
However in her closing speech, Fiona Murphy SC said that the prosecution had "meticulously presented a tapestry of circumstantial evidence", where each thread had been interwoven, painting a "compelling picture" of Mr McHugh's guilt.
Evidence has been given that Ms Thompson - who was stabbed 11 times in the chest - was dealing prescription drugs from her home and that she and Mr McHugh (40) had a "bit of a fling" in the year before she died.
The trial had also heard that gardaí searching Ms Thompson's home found thousands of prescription tablets worth nearly €50,000 hidden in her attic.
Mr McHugh with an address at Cairn Court, Poppintree, Ballymun in Dublin 11, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Thompson (52) at Sandyhill Gardens, Ballymun in Dublin 11 on May 9th, 2022.
The jury has heard that Ms Thompson was found inside the rear door of her home with multiple stab wounds to her chest and a window blind cord wrapped around her neck.
In her closing speech, Ms Murphy drew the jury’s attention to evidence given by neighbour Sandra McMahon, who said Ms Thompson sold tablets and that she was careful about who she let into her house. She said Ms McMahon had recalled Ms Thompson locking the back gate behind her in the early hours of May 9th.
Ms Murphy said a Hyundai Tucson driven by a named woman was ultimately seen in or around the deceased's home between 1.20am and 3am in the early hours of May 9th.
She told the jury they could rely on evidence given by two gardaí, who identified the accused at Marewood Crescent in Ballymun and then ultimately arriving at Ms Thompson's front door.
The barrister submitted the identification evidence was reliable and credible, telling the jury: "Crucially it was never put to either garda member that they were wrong about the identification, what was put to them is the manner in which the accused was identified was less than satisfactory".
Ms Murphy said the accused chose to make no comment when asked to account for his presence at Sandyhill Gardens between 1:25am and 2:50am on May 9th, 2022, as depicted on CCTV footage. She said the jury was entitled to draw inference from the fact that Mr McHugh hadn't denied that the identification was accurate.
She described the Hyundai Tucson as remaining in the general area of the deceased's house between 1:27am and 2:50am and said it was clear that the accused had been collected and moved out of Ballymun that night.
Counsel said the evidence from witness and neighbour Joan Lundy was not consistent and she had placed hearing "noises and movements" on the morning of May 10th and not the previous night. "She simply can't be right about that," she added.
Regarding texts sent to the accused in June 2022, Ms Murphy said they came from the named woman who was with the accused before, after and at the time the murder was committed.
She said the named woman had specifically referenced matters she had no reason to know about unless she had some form of "insider information" that Ms Thompson had been strangled and stabbed.
The trial had heard that the accused received a text message saying "I could of been like Lisa today strangle n stab" over a month after Ms Thompson was killed. Other SMS text messages sent from the named woman included: "Murder Lisa n al" and "Move the knife did u".
However, the jury was previously told by a senior investigating officer that details of the ligature and strangulation injuries on Ms Thompson had not been released into the public domain at the time these text messages were sent.
Another message sent from the named woman read: "Ur runners n the knife". Ms Murphy asked the jury how she could have known the relevance of the knife and runners. Counsel said the woman had referenced the two items which were missing in the case and that the pair of runners seized by gardaí from the accused had no blood on them.
Counsel said Ms Thompson's bedroom had been ransacked, her wallet was missing and that red was the prominent colour on the deceased's bedding.
She said CCTV footage showed the accused going through a red wallet and a red pillowcase in the forecourt of an Applegreen service station in Swords. Counsel said a red pillowcase had been found in the accused's home and she asked the jury to consider whether the same one could be seen on the CCTV footage.
Ms Murphy said it was "hugely significant" that Mr McHugh's DNA was found on the blood-stained blind cord that was wrapped around Ms Thompson's neck, while the explanation he gave to gardai when asked to account for its presence was "simply not credible at all".
When asked to account for the presence of his DNA on the cord, the jury heard Mr McHugh told gardai that he had been "in and out" of Ms Thompson's house "for the last three years".
Counsel concluded by saying that the prosecution had demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr McHugh had murdered Ms Thompson and she asked the jury to return a guilty verdict.
Addressing the jury, Mr Grehan said that this was not "the neat case wrapped up in a bow" that the prosecution had presented to the jury and that they had simply chosen to ignore matters which caused problems "to that neat little case".
Counsel said one of the most significant things in the case is that it was not possible to tell the time of Ms Thompson's death and that the best Chief State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan could do was give an estimate.
Mr Grehan noted that the deceased's neighbour and "nocturnal animal" Joan Lundy was "not to be moved" when she gave her evidence about hearing banging on the wall, a woman's voice in the back garden and a vehicle driving off between 4:20am and 4:30am on May 10th.
He said the prosecution, who had considered Ms Lundy a credible witness to be called to give evidence, now wanted to disown her "as she simply can't be right".
The lawyer said no one wants to speak ill of the dead and there is no justification for someone being murdered but it was relevant that there was "a little bit more going on here than would appear on the surface". "Lisa Thompson is a woman of secrets but not a very big secret to some of her friends," he added.
Counsel described as a "colossal amount" the 24,500 tablets found in two sports bags concealed in Ms Thompson's attic. "You suddenly have a slightly different picture emerging ....someone who has people coming in and out of the house at all hours of the night and day, where everyone seems to use the back gate, everyone seems to know how to get in. There is no sign of a break in, whoever entered did so by invitation or was let in. It does mean you have a far more complex situation than simply someone being found dead in the house".
He noted the thread of messages between Ms Thompson and another man in early May 2022, where the man is in a bad way and pleads for a substantial loan from the deceased. "He is promising to repay €500 a week, she turns him down repeatedly and talks about calling into her to explain; that's in the days before her death".
Pointing to the evidence given by several witnesses, Mr Grehan said no one suggested any kind of sinister relationship between Ms Thompson and Mr McHugh. He said the jury had seen the Facebook messages and submitted "it couldn't have been more cordial". He said there was no suggestion of difficulties between the pair.
The barrister reminded the jury about the texts from the named woman to the accused, which he characterised as "unhappy". He said there is an expression that "hell hath no fury" and one of the mysteries from the night is where the named woman was during the course of the evening.
Counsel argued that the CCTV didn't show everything and there are points in the footage where it is "not known where the Hyundai Tucson has gone". He said there is another walking route into the lane at the back of the deceased's house which wasn't covered by CCTV.
There were no forensics in the case, he said, connecting his client's shoes to the killing in circumstances where blood was found on the deceased's floor. He also said nothing was recovered under Ms Thompson's nails to suggest the accused as her attacker.
"What's left, oh yeah the blind," remarked Mr Grehan, adding that other witnesses had given evidence that the accused was in Ms Thompson's house more recently than January 2022. "If you are in the house and you open the blind on the back door, you will leave DNA, it's as simple as that, there is no great mystery".
Mr Grehan suggested that the knife wounds were very targeted to the deceased's heart area and there was "an element of overkill" with the amount of stab wounds through the organ. "It may cause you to pause as to what exactly was the nature of the animus behind whoever inflicted those knife wounds in the case".
He said the prosecutor had gone from talking about a rope at the beginning of her closing speech to telling the jury about threads by the end of it. He said the jury had been left "with threads" rather than the image of a strong rope, where the prosecution had chosen not to engage with two of the most important points in the case; Ms Lundy's evidence and that the time of the deceased's death cannot be established.
Counsel submitted that the prosecution had asked the jury "to make a leap into the unknown" and that the State had been unable despite their best efforts to close off the reasonable doubts that exist as to the accused's guilt. He asked the jury to acquit his client.
The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Karen O'Connor and a jury of four men and eight women, when the judge will continue giving her charge.
