A MAN WHOSE conviction for murdering his mother was overturned by the Supreme Court will be sentenced for her manslaughter in February.

Celyn Eadon’s sentence hearing at the Central Criminal Court was interrupted a number of times and his video link turned off for a time today after he shouted abuse at the prosecutor while a list of his mother’s stab wounds was being detailed.

The State had accepted the now 29-year-old’s plea to the lesser offence earlier this month, on the basis that intoxication can prevent the formation of the statutory intent needed for murder.

Eadon was 19 when he killed his 46-year-old mother in the early hours of 9 March, 2011.

Noreen Kelly was stabbed 19 times in their home at Derrycrieve, Islandeady, near Castlebar in Co Mayo.

The accused admitted to her killing that day and pleaded guilty to her manslaughter.

However, a jury found him guilty of her murder, and he was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment in February 2014.

The defendant had his conviction for murder overturned last December, when a five-judge Supreme Court ruled that it was unsafe.

The higher court found that the trial judge’s instruction to the jury on intoxication and specific intention was inadequate, as it had not informed the jury of the “vitally important point” that intoxication can be a partial defence to murder.

The Supreme Court noted in its judgment that since Eadon was aged 13, he was a significant and persistent abuser of alcohol and drugs, including amphetamines, cocaine and crystal meth.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had to decide whether to pursue a retrial on the murder charge. However, the Central Criminal Court was told that the DPP was accepting the plea to manslaughter on the basis of intoxication.

Burnt drugs

Detective Sergeant James Carroll today told Seamus Clarke SC, prosecuting, that the deceased had taken drugs from her son’s bedroom and burnt them on the evening before she died.

She had also put out two fires he had lit and put a chainsaw into the boot of her car.

Both her brother and Eadon’s father stated that she had called them to the house that evening for help. The father of the accused, Mark Eadon, said his son was starry-eyed and he was convinced the teenager was on speed. He left at 11pm.

Eadon’s younger brother dialled 999 at 1.38am. He had been woken by his mother screaming for help and had found her slumped on the floor, with her face covered in blood.

The house was full of smoke and the deceased showed no signs of life by the time emergency services arrived.

Her killer had fled cross-country, and a neighbour noticed him in his back garden at breakfast time. Eadon told the neighbour that he had been abducted by aliens, who had conducted experiments on him, and that he had killed his mother.

He later told gardaí that “she went for” him, that he didn’t know it was his mother and that she was a totally different person.

He said that he had clipped her with a knife that he’d had in his pocket for five to ten minutes.

Hearing continued in absence

Eadon, who has been in custody since that day, was offered a seat in the room in prison from where he followed the sentence hearing by video link.

He preferred to stand, but had sat down and could no-longer be seen by the time the prosecution counsel was leading the sergeant through the pathology report.

Counsel detailed the stab wounds to the eye, brain, jugular, lung, liver and other areas of the deceased. These had caused catastrophic haemorrhage. There were also classic defence injuries to her arms and legs. He said death would have been rapid.

Clarke then proceeded to go into more detail about each of the 19 stab wounds.

Eadon stood back up and accused him of listing more injuries than she had, saying: “You f**ing w**ker,” he said. “You f**ing annoying b**tard. You f***ing asshole.”

Mr Justice Michael White asked Eadon’s barrister, Patrick Gageby SC, about the possibility of turning off the link to the prison, and the barrister confirmed that the judge had discretion.

The judge then instructed that the hearing continue in Eadon’s absence for a time.

The court heard that Eadon now has 13 convictions, mostly for assaults causing harm, carried out since he began his life sentence.

‘She would have forgiven him’

Counsel for the prosecution read out a victim impact statement prepared by Mark Eadon, the deceased’s former husband and Eadon’s father.

He said that his wife had lost her life trying to protect her child.

“I do not blame Celyn for what happened anymore,” he said. “I’m sure, had she survived, she would have forgiven him.”

He said that young people now are under great pressures.

“The international drugs trade has almost every nation in its grip,” he concluded.

At this stage, the link to the prison was reconnected and Eadon asked why counsel for the prosecution was “lying” about his mother’s injuries.

His barrister explained that his client had always become “exercised” when his mother’s injuries were mentioned.

However, Eadon continued to speak even when the barrister began cross examining the sergeant about other matters.

The hearing continued, with the sergeant confirming that the deceased had tried to have her son admitted to hospital, but had been told that the gardaí would need to be involved.

Eadon rubbed tears from his eyes as his barrister read out a letter he had written.

“I didn’t set out to kill my mother,” he wrote. “I pray to God my mother can forgive me.”

He wrote that he felt like a bad person, and had to learn to live with it.

“I wish I could go back to that night in question,” he continued. “My mother is gone forever because of me.”

The judge informed Eadon that he was adjourning the case so that the Probation Service could put a structure in place if he was to be released from prison.

He remanded him in custody until 8 February, when he will hear final submissions.

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