A husband accused of murder described to gardaí how he "waited in the long grass" for his wife before slitting her throat and choking her with his "bare hands", a Central Criminal Court jury has heard.
"I didn't stop, there was nothing to stop. It was black and nasty," James Kilroy told gardaí in interview.
A psychiatrist, called by the defence, also gave evidence today that Mr Kilroy - who admits killing his wife at their rural Co Mayo home - had a long history of cannabis use and was regularly consuming the drug therapeutically in the three years leading up to her death.
The expert witness said the accused had purchased a high-THC strain of cannabis called 'AK-47' in 2018, of which he had slightly increased his use in the week prior to his wife's death. The witness also gave evidence that THC can make certain people with a predisposition experience substance-induced psychosis.
Mr Kilroy (50), has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to murdering occupational therapist Valerie French Kilroy (41) at their rural home at Kilbree Lower, Westport, Co Mayo, between June 13th 2019 and June 14th 2019.
The jury heard last week that after he was brought to Mayo University Hospital, Mr Kilroy asked to speak to gardaí to make a confession and said: "I killed my wife". The trial heard that, up until this point, gardaí had no suspicion of the accused having done anything criminal.
Gardaí were dispatched to the defendant's home at Kilbree Lower at 3pm on June 14th, where they discovered the body of Ms French Kilroy in a green campervan parked facing a wall in a shed.
At the outset of the trial on Monday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the jury they would have seen from looking at the accused that he had suffered an injury.
The judge said Mr Kilroy, who was sitting in the dock with a black eye, had been the subject of an assault when he was in custody in prison. "He wasn't the source of that, he was the victim of the assault," he added.
The next witness, Garda Declan Sweeney from Castlebar Garda Station told Michael D Hourigan BL, prosecuting, that on June 14th 2019 the accused was brought to Castlebar Garda Station where he was interviewed by gardai.
Garda interviews
During the first interview on June 15, the accused said he remembered his first exposure to cannabis as it was cheaper than drinking. He elaborated to gardaí on smoking a lot of cannabis and said he was once "into acid and ecstasy".
The accused reflected on writing letters to his "first love" Valerie, who he had met on holidays, and said she had shown him "the brighter side of life". He said the couple had a "budding romance getting to know each other".
He added: "What I did to her was indescribable, I proposed to her, I loved her, she loved me. Where she went I went, she was my soulmate". He said the couple didn't have sex until they were married.
Mr Kilroy said they moved to east Mayo in 2013 around the time he had also started smoking and drinking heavily. The accused said they found the house at Kilbree Lower in 2015 and "fell in love with it".
When asked by gardaí to tell them what had happened to his wife, Mr Kilroy said he had taken cannabis for some time and successfully grown two cannabis plants at his home for his own use after reading it would help his anxiety. "I've been feeling strange for some time, I stopped taking cannabis seven days ago," he continued.
Being watched
The accused said his wife had gone out with friends on the night of June 13th and that was when things "went south". He said he was feeling watched at the time and "felt 20,000 people were watching my every move".
In the second interview, Mr Kilroy said he had jumped out of the bathroom window that night and "waited in the long grass". He then jumped into an unlit bonfire at the back of Kilbree Lower.
He added: "A car came up and it was Valerie. I heard her say 'James is that you'. I didn't say anything. I pushed her up against the door, slit her throat, we had battle.... there was kicking, blood everywhere, it was crazy. I choked her. I tried suffocating her. I didn't stop, there was nothing to stop. It was black and nasty. I killed her with my bare hands, I smashed her head three times".
The accused said after the "Valerie murder attack" he went into the bathroom, where he jumped out the window again. He said he had attacked his wife opposite the driver's door in the shed.
When it was put to him by gardaí that he had slit her throat, the accused said Valerie had come out towards the shed, that they had run into each other and that was where he slit her throat.
"I'm not defending my action," he said, adding that he had used a black serrated 12 inch "bendy knife", which was left beside the campervan.
He said he had smashed her head off the ground. "I was in the zone and had no bearing. As soon as I flicked the switch it was just mad, mad. It was surreal, something you do in the comic book".
He said Valerie was groaning and that he had no plan to kill her "but something on that night just boom".
Frenzy
Asked how many times he had struck his wife with the knife, the accused replied: "I think from throat down to belly, it was a frenzy".
He said he had not taken an intoxicant that day and had been off cannabis and alcohol "the whole week".
The jury has heard that Ms French Kilroy died from strangulation with a ligature as well as blunt force trauma to the head and a stab wound to the neck.
In the third interview, the accused was asked by gardaí why he hadn't told them what had happened to Valerie when they found him in a field. "Nobody asked, I was having trouble, no fit state, I was on a different planet," he replied.
The trial previously heard that gardaí detained Mr Kilroy under the Mental Health Act after finding him naked in a field in Derrygorman outside Westport, where he told officers that he was on a pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick and "that God had put him on this path".
Mr Kilroy told gardai that there was a bit of friction between the couple on June 13 but that they didn't row very much. Asked whether he had gotten physical in the past with Valerie, the accused said he would never raise his hand to any woman.
In the final interview, the accused said he didn't use a ligature on Valerie "just his hands". Gardai put it to him that a knife was used on the deceased's neck to which Mr Kilroy replied: "It was dark, frenzied, I had a knife, yes".
He said he had put his wife's body inside the campervan, closed the door and walked away. When the officers put it to the accused that it was a frenzied and sustained attack, the accused said: "She was alive when I left her, she was talking when I left. I had to get out, she morphed into a zombie".
Detective Sergeant Michael Doherty agreed with Dean Kelly SC, prosecuting, that the accused told gardai when he was detained in the garda station that he had not consumed alcohol or drugs.
After this evidence, Mr Kelly informed the court that the prosecution's case was now closed.
Psychriatric evidence
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Ronan Mullaney from the Central Mental Hospital, who was called by the defence, told Patrick Gageby SC that he interviewed the accused on two occasions in June 2019 at Cloverhill Prison and on a third occasion at Castlerea Prison in January 2020.
Dr Mullaney said Mr Kilroy told him his family had moved from the UK to Ballymena in Northern Ireland six months after he was born and that he went to boarding school at Headfort School until he was 13 years of age. The accused went to agricultural college after leaving school and then studied Game and Wildlife Management, he said.
The witness said the accused began working at Connemara National Park in 2000, at which point he was diagnosed with paranoia.
Referring to the accused's past medical history, Dr Mullaney said the accused told him that he first became mentally unwell in 2001 and had got very anxious after taking ecstasy at a party.
The witness said the accused was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Bantry in Cork in 2001, when he believed he was under surveillance and at risk of being kidnapped by 'President Bush' and handed over to Osama Bin Laden to be tortured. He was discharged after three nights and lived with his parents for three months.
His GP in Meath then sent the accused to a psychiatrist in Navan where he was treated with the antipsychotic medication Risperidone. Records at the time stated the accused had a history of drug use in college and used the hallucinogenic drug LSD, said the witness.
Referring to the accused's history of intoxicant use, Dr Mullaney said the accused told him that he had a long history of cannabis use which began in 1991 and had been regularly consuming the drug therapeutically rather than for pleasure in the three years leading up to the death of his wife.
Cannabis
The expert witness said the accused told him that he had purchased cannabis named 'AK-47' (a cannabis strain with a high THC content) in 2018 and that his wife was aware of his consumption of cannabis in cookies. He said he had used three quarters of an ounce of AK-47 cannabis over 12 months.
Mr Gageby asked the psychiatrist what was the effect of THC in cannabis and he replied: "It is what is thought to be the active ingredient that produces a feeling of being high and [for] certain people with a predisposition can make them experience substance-induced psychosis".
Dr Mullaney said the accused told him that from April 2019 he began to consume AK-47 cannabis by smoking it in rolled cigarettes rather than consuming it through cookies. "He stated in the week prior to Valerie's death that he slightly increased his use, taking a drag of the joint every second day instead of every second or third day," said the witness.
The psychiatrist said the accused told him that he had felt anxious and under surveillance at an anti-Trump protest at Shannon Airport on June 5th 2019. The accused thought his friend may have poisoned him in a café outside Tuam on their return.
When Dr Mullaney asked the accused about the events of June 13, Mr Kilroy said he had picked up a knife in the shed that night when he felt three bodyguards approaching "in order to kill or harm him". He said the accused heard a car driving up to the house and took care to remain still and not move.
Mr Kilroy said he ran out of the shed saying 'you're one of them, I knew they were coming for me' when he heard his wife calling his name three times in the darkness.
The psychiatrist said the accused told him that he had attacked Valerie because she was on a mission to have him captured and tortured. The accused said he slashed her with the knife several times before they both fell on the ground and then attempted to strangle her, but it didn't subdue her.
Dr Mullaney went on to say the accused told him that he was convinced his wife would rise from the dead as a zombie and attack him once again so he put a child's seat over her body inside the campervan to prevent this from happening.
The trial continues tomorrow in front of Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven women and five men.
