THE “MERCILESS, FEROCIOUS and sustained” murder of “timid and quiet gentleman” Peter McDonald in his own home has left a family and neighbours traumatised, a Central Criminal Court judge has said.

Sentencing Patrick McDonagh (52), of Whitechapel Road, Clonsilla to life imprisonment for murdering his 73-year-old neighbour with a machete, Justice Michael MacGrath said the victim’s home “should have been a place of safety and security to him; it was anything but that.”

He described the circumstances of the murder as shocking and traumatic for the neighbours who witnessed it, the paramedics and gardaí who attended the scene and for those who knew and loved Mr McDonald.

Addressing the grieving family, Mr Justice MacGrath extended his condolences and said they had come to court to show their support for the deceased and had done so with great dignity.

Philipp Rahn SC, for the prosecution, read out a statement written by the deceased’s brother Eoin McDonald on behalf of the family.

Eoin described growing up in Glasnevin and being sent to an orphanage where he and his older brother “spent a lot of time looking after each other”.

He described his brother as a kind, reserved, proud and decent man who looked out for others but wouldn’t accept help for himself. He lived a quiet life and looked after his cats at his home in Blanchardstown where he settled after working on building sites in the UK.

Before he died, Peter was excited to visit his family in England but “he was killed before we could get it organised,” Eoin McDonald said.

Patrick McDonagh, who stabbed, slashed and chopped his victim with a machete and a knife, apologised to the McDonald family through his barrister John Fitzgerald SC.

Fitzgerald said the deceased was a kind and gentle man and McDonagh had never instructed him to challenge that in any way.

McDonagh had pleaded not guilty to murder and guilty to manslaughter, arguing that his responsibility was diminished due to a mental disorder.

Consultant psychiatrist Professor Patricia Casey, who was called by the defence, told the trial that McDonagh was suffering from schizophrenia and that his responsibility for the killing was substantially reduced by his mental disorder.

The Director of Public Prosecutions did not accept the plea and called Dr Mary Davoren, who said that if there was any abnormality in McDonagh’s mental state, it would most likely be accounted for by cannabis use. She also said there was evidence of malingering in some tests carried out on McDonagh by a psychologist and that the mental symptoms he described were not typical signs of schizophrenia.

McDonagh’s two-week trial ended on Monday when a jury unanimously rejected his defence and found him guilty of murder.

During today’s hearing, Superintendent Bronagh O’Reilly detailed McDonagh’s previous convictions in Ireland and in the UK, including burglary, possession of drugs, handling stolen property, robberies and road traffic offences. His most recent offence was in 2016 when he received a two-year suspended sentence for robbery.

Before passing the mandatory life sentence, Justice MacGrath said: “This murder of a clearly kind, timid and quiet gentleman was carried out in what can only be described as a merciless, ferocious and sustained manner. It took place within the confines of his own home, which should have been a place of safety and security to him; it was anything but that.

“The circumstances of his murder are truly shocking, the events must have been traumatic for those who witnessed it and it must also have been extremely traumatic for those who attended the scene in its immediate aftermath.”

Patrick McDonagh (52), with an address at Whitechapel Road, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, murdered Mr McDonald (73) at the deceased’s home on Whitechapel Road on July 25, 2020.

During the trial, a garda described how she had visited the pensioner’s home and spoke to him that night about McDonagh, who had been in his garden chasing his cats. The garda received a call within minutes of leaving telling her to return to Mr McDonald’s house after neighbours had raised the alarm. She returned to find Mr McDonald dead in his driveway just 14 minutes after she had left.

One witness told the trial that about two hours before the fatal attack, he saw McDonagh at the front door of Mr McDonald’s home trying to push past him while Mr McDonald tried to defend himself. The witness heard McDonagh shout and scream: “I’m going to kill you.” He described seeing a scuffle but Mr McDonald managed to close the door and stayed in his own home.

Another neighbour heard loud screaming at 5.53am and then heard Mr McDonald shout: “Help me, help me.” When he looked outside he saw Mr McDonald lying on the path outside his home covered in blood with McDonagh standing over him holding a machete.

He saw McDonagh walk slowly out of Mr McDonald’s garden and into his own house. He added: “As he [McDonagh] was passing Peter, he looked over the wall and almost like he was going to take another hit but then decided not to and barricaded himself into the house.”

Inside Mr McDonald’s home, forensic investigators found blood spattered across the bathroom, on a lampshade and throughout his hallway leading to where his body lay. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Meanwhile, armed gardai became engaged in a standoff with McDonagh, who had locked himself inside his own home.

Garda James Verner told Philip Rahn SC, for the prosecution, that standing on a small step ladder he was able to see McDonagh through a hole in the blinds of the kitchen window. “He appeared to be in an emotionally distressed state, sweating profusely, crying, sitting in a chair and rocking back and forth,” the witness said.

Garda Verner could see a religious icon on the kitchen wall and Mr McDonagh “appeared to be praying, chanting, whispering and murmuring to that picture on the wall.”

Later that morning, Garda Kenneth Clints told Mr Rahn that negotiations had broken down and there was a concern for McDonagh’s welfare.

Using a piece of hydraulic equipment, Garda Clints popped the lock on the front door and as the door opened, he saw McDonagh “swinging a yellow-handled machete through the gap in the door.” A garda raised his shield and blocked the machete.

Garda Clints said he saw McDonagh place the machete on a radiator near the door and retreat to his kitchen. Gardai entered, removed the machete and tried again to engage with McDonagh through his kitchen door. Garda Clints said: “He was very agitated and aggressive, he didn’t seem to be listening to anything we were saying to him. We told him to get on the ground, to show his hands, but he refused to comply.”

Garda Clints said he became concerned for the welfare of gardai in the narrow hallway. “If he came at us with a knife we had nowhere to go so I deployed a less lethal weapon, the Taser. It was effective, Mr McDonagh fell to the ground, we restrained him and placed him in handcuffs.”

State pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan told the trial that McDonald died from multiple stab, slash and chop wounds inflicted by a machete and possibly a knife. The most severe were to the neck and severed the carotid artery, damaged the jugular vein and fractured his skull and nose.

He had to be identified by his dental records, such was the nature of his injuries.

In his closing speech to the jury last week, Rahn said the evidence shows that McDonagh killed Mr McDonald in a “violent, sustained and merciless attack… leaving him no chance.”

He described the killing as “horrific” and “brutal” and said the defence had not established that at the time of the attack McDonagh was operating under a mental disorder. “He is not only responsible for killing Mr McDonald but for his murder and a true verdict on the evidence is one of murder,” he said.

John Fitzgerald SC, defending, said his client has a lengthy psychiatric history with multiple diagnoses of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

There was further evidence, counsel said, that McDonagh’s condition deteriorated in the lead-up to the killing and in the hours leading up to the attack he appeared to be “raging against the world”.

“He was drawing attention to himself all night in front of his neighbours, roaring and shouting, blessing himself, banging a machete off the wall… None of this is consistent with any kind of planned killing or clever tactical thinking or anything like that.”

Counsel said that the suggestion had been made that McDonagh was a “malingerer or a liar” but he asked the jury to consider how that sits with a mental health history going back to 1999. “If he’s been lying or malingering all those years, it’s a hell of a performance,” he said.