GARDAÍ FOUND THE body of a mother-of-three lying on the floor of a campervan with her hand, which was covered with blood, protruding outside the sliding door and a child’s car seat over her face, a murder trial has heard.

A garda also told the Central Criminal Court jury today that Valerie French Kilroy’s three children were found in their rural home hungry and “very dehydrated”. One child requested Kellogg’s Coco Pops, which the garda witness went out to buy.

Park ranger James Kilroy (49), with an address at Kilbree Lower, Westport, Co Mayo is charged with murdering occupational therapist Valerie French Kilroy (41) at their home between 13 June 2019 and 14 June 2019. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Patrick Gageby SC, defending Kilroy, has made a number of formal admissions to the court on behalf of his client including that he killed his wife Valerie.

The trial has already heard that Kilroy demonstrated to gardai in interview how he had killed his wife and at one point sketched the knife he had used.

Giving evidence today, Garda Colm Boyle from Westport Garda Station told Anne Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that he was informed the accused had “made confessions” to his colleague Garda Leanne Nallen on the afternoon of 14 June “that he had murdered his wife and kids”.

Yesterday, Garda Nallen testified that the accused man had made a “confession” to her in Mayo General Hospital that day and stated “I killed my wife and kids”.

Garda Boyle went with Sergeant Kieran McGinty to the Kilroy home where he found three very young and extremely distressed children crying very loudly.

Garda Nallen was trying to comfort them and make them feel at ease. “With the information we had received there was a possibility of three or four bodies, obviously when we saw the children were ok our attention focused on the whereabouts of Ms French Kilroy,” he said.

The witness said he commenced a search of the house and went into one of the children’s bedrooms but could find no body there. There was no body in the next bedroom which was very untidy with bed sheets thrown on the ground. Garda Boyle went to the downstairs bathroom after he was informed about blood splatter there. Gardaí quickly ascertained that Ms French Kilroy was not in the house, he said.

Garda Boyle went outside to the farmyard where he found a green old style camper van in a shed. The front of the vehicle was closely parked to a wall and there was a large pool of blood at the back of the van. The sliding door on the left was open but he couldn’t see into it.

“A wooden type chair was blocking my path so I walked around the front of the vehicle, when I walked I could see a hand hanging out the sliding door. It had three rings on the ring finger and a gash to the wrist,” he said.

The body was that of Ms French Kilroy and she was lying on her left hand side in a curved position with her knees bent forward to her chest. “I couldn’t see her face as a [child's] car seat was placed over it,” he said.

The witness alerted Sergeant McGinty and agreed with the prosecutor that it was immediately apparent it had been a violent death. Garda Boyle made his way back to the house and noticed two shopping bags containing groceries on the footpath outside after jumping a wall adjacent to the farm yard.

Garda Boyle said the three children were very dehydrated and he was informed by his colleagues that there was no food in the house. The witness went to the local Texaco station to buy Kellogg’s Coco Pops which one of the children had requested as well as milk, fizzy drinks and chocolate.

“I sat with one of the children when he was eating the Coco Pops and it was apparent to me that he was extremely hungry and it had been a substantial amount of time since he had eaten,” he recalled.

Under cross-examination, Garda Boyle told Patrick Gageby SC, defending, that he had met Kilroy earlier that day when the accused was “in complete nakedness” and covered in scrapes.

The accused told the witness his name, said he had been on a pilgrimage of penance to Croagh Patrick and that he had to do it because of what he had done. Kilroy claimed his clothes had come off him as he was trying to get out of a tunnel and that he appeared very confused.

Michael D Hourigan BL, prosecuting, read a statement from Sergeant Kieran McGinty, who said that he saw clumps of hair and a hair trimmer around the sink in the Kilroy house on 14 June when he looked through a bathroom window.

The witness went to an open shed when Garda Boyle shouted at him and observed blood on the concrete at the rear of a campervan. Inside the vehicle he observed a female body, who he now knows to be Ms French Kilroy, wearing black jeans and wine coloured boots.

She was lying in a foetal position on the floor, the body was facing forward and the left hand, which was covered in blood, was protruding outside the door. There was a lot of blood on the ground, a car seat was concealing the head and the rear window of the van was smashed. When Sergeant McGinty checked the body there was no sign of life and he stepped away from the van at 3.06pm.

On 25 June 2019, Sergeant McGinty found clothing including a black sock, blue underpants and waterproof trousers pushed into a space in between rocks at Dooncastle in Westport. There was a stone placed on top of the clothing.

Evidence has been given that a man rang gardaí at 9.40am on 14 June to say he had observed a naked man, who turned out to be Mr Kilroy, in a field in front of his house at Derrygorman in Westport.

The trial continues this afternoon before Justice Mary Ellen Ring and a jury of ten men and two women.