Men accused of murdering Thomas Dooley in a Kerry cemetery were laughing and grinning as they attacked him with bladed weapons, the victim’s wife told a court yesterday (Wednesday)
Mum of seven Siobhan Dooley who was married to her husband for 24 years painted a horrific picture of witnessing the attack on the 43 year old who shouted at her to run as he lay on the ground bleeding from his wounds.
Six defendants - Patrick Dooley, 35, of Arbutus Grove, Killarney, Daniel Dooley, 42, of An Carraigin, Connolly Park, Tralee, Thomas Dooley Snr, 42, and his son Thomas Dooley Jnr, 20, both of the Halting Site Carrigrohane Road, Cork, Michael Dooley, 28, of the Halting Site, Carrigrohane, Cork and a teenage male appeared before Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring in Courtroom 3 of the Courthouse on Anglesea Street in Cork City.
They have all pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork to the murder of Thomas (Tom) Dooley at Rath Cemetery, Tralee on October 5, 2022.
Thomas Dooley Jnr also pleaded not guilt to a charge of intentionally or recklessly causing harm to Siobhan Dooley at Rath cemetery on the same date.
Patrick Dooley is the deceased man’s younger brother, Thomas Dooley Snr his brother-in-law and his first cousin. Thomas Snr, Daniel and Michael Dooley are brothers and Thomas Dooley Jnr is his nephew.
Tom Dooley was walking with his sons ahead of his wife into Rath cemetery Tralee for the funeral of their friend when he was attacked.
Siobhan told the court she saw Thomas and Patrick and two others approaching her husband adding “they were actually grinning”. Thomas Snr had a knee length coat on and as he was taking it off and putting it on a headstone he was grinning.
She said “I saw something in his hand. I said to my husband run. He said ‘why, I have nothing to run for’. I saw Tom with something in his hand. He had two weapons. One was kinda shiny like new, the other was rusty and one had a kinda round top. The other was a big chunk of a yoke. I had never seen anything like it before.
“Tom (Snr) said ‘you are a big man now. Patrick was grinning. He had another weapon. I’m not sure what it was. Tom’s son Thomas and the teenager came from behind and went past me".
Mrs Dooley said the teenager had something long in his hand that looked like something you would seen in an Indian movie, like an axe. Thomas Jnr had a weapon in his hand which he had up and swinging and she feared her son would be hit on the head so she pushed him out of the way and that is when she herself “got cut. Thomas Jnr hit me under my arm”.
She saw Patrick and Tom (Snr) around her husband and Tom grabbed him by his two collars. "They were at him. I realised Mike his first cousin was there with a weapon in his hand. I knew they were going to do harm because of the weapons. I tried to squeeze in between them. I knew I had no hope. I told my oldest son to run, but he wouldn’t.
She started scraping Tom on the face and eyes with her nails.
She said “I was trying to keep my daughter back to stop her getting hurted. I heard one of them saying ’take her out too. Get rid of her.’ That was when I got another bang and was pegged to the ground.
“I looked towards my husband.They were all gathered around him, all six. He just turned his head and he told me to run, just run”
Mrs Dooley said she saw Thomas Snr, Patrick and Daniel, the latter whom she thought initially was Miley who looked like him, hitting her husband with everything. The whole lot of them had weapons. Patrick was hitting him on the leg with a weapon and there “was blood squirting everywhere”. Thomas was also hitting his legs .
She said “They started laughing and Tom said ‘you are a big man now.”
Her daughter starting roaring and said ‘poor daddy’s blood is going everywhere’.
She said Patrick was laughing. He was striking her husband. After that they were pushing each other out of the way to get at him saying to give them a chance.
“I ran with my children. I had no choice. I had to save my children”.
She gave a quick glance back and the teenager was following her with a long axe type thing in his hand. He turned back.”
Mrs Dooley saw a Garda car parked in the garage across the road and ran into the shop roaring at the Garda to help them.
“I said they are going to kill him”.
Thomas (Tom) Dooley suffered three potentially fatal wounds - a six and a half centimetre stab wound into his back which caused spinal damage and spinal shock, a ten and a half centimetre wound into his thigh which severed the femoral artery causing large blood loss and a 23cm chop wound to his right arm.
The trial continues.
