Man pleads guilty to killing Co Fermanagh "Good Samaritan" Pauline Kilkenny

M&M NEWS SERVICES

Cavan man Joseph Dolan unexpectedly admitted stabbing beating Fermanagh woman Pauline Kilkenny to death in November 2018. 

The 29-year-old, of no fixed abode, was due to go on trial in Dungannon on Monday accused of murdering the 59-year-old "Good Samaritan" at her isolated bungalow, sometime between the November 4 and 16 last year before stealing her Fiat Panda car, and implicating his former girlfriend in the killing.

However, on Friday defence QC James Gallagher asked for Dolan, who has previous convictions for violence, to be re-arraigned before the Dungannon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast.

When the murder charge was put to Dolan, he replied simply, "Not Guilty to murder ... but guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility".

Prosecution QC Ciraran Murphy told Mr Justice Colton that they had the opportunity of considering psychiatric reports, and on the balance of those reports his manslaughter plea was accepted.

However, Mr Murphy added that they may be an adendem report, as there was the question of whether or not Dolan is dangerous, which may also require oral evidence from one or other of the doctors.

Mr Justice Colton, who remanded Dolan  back into custody for sentencing in the New Year, said having seen reports he could "well see the merit and sense of the approach taken in this case".

(29-year-old Joseph Dolan, above) 

Throughout the short proceeding Dolan sat in the dock with his head downcast, and on being led out of court did not look in the direction of the public gallery just feet away, where Ms Kilkenny's sisters and brother-inlaw and other family members were sitting.

No details surrounding the killing of Ms Kilkenny were given in court however, it is understood she was stabbed up to 30 times, and battered in her isolated home, a mile off the Cornacully Road, halfway between Belcoo and Garrison.

Among the horrific wounds believed to have been inflicted were eight stab wounds to her head and neck, two to the right side of her torso and 20 stab wounds to her back. She also suffered a number of serious head injuries caused by blunt force trauma.

Ms Kilkenny, a keen animal lover, who often took in strays to care for, was found by her sister, after concerns were raised when she did not show up for work, after she'd booked off a few days from Lilley's Centra on the Lough Shore Road in Enniskillen, where she'd worked for the previous two years.

She had provided a home for Dolan, who'd returned from the Irish Republic, where he had 27 previous convictions, including for 'violent disorder'.

In January 2013 he was sentenced to three years for robbery and for beating a Drogheda pensioner 'as hard as he could' with his the victim's umbrella, and then hours later stabbing a local taxi driver.

Dolan, who threatened the driver he would slit his throat, ended up stabbing him a number of times when he struggled with him.  The taxi driver was later treated for puncture wounds to the back of his neck and shoulder.

The Cavan man was homeless at the time and had written letters apologising to the taxi driver and the pensioner, and entered an early guilty plea which his lawyer said was  ' a genuine expression of remorse'.