DPP v Bambrick

JurisdictionIreland
JudgeCarney J.
Judgment Date26 July 1996
Neutral Citation1996 WJSC-CC 2980
Docket Number[1995 No. 81]
CourtCircuit Court
Date26 July 1996

1996 WJSC-CC 2980

THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT

No. 81/95
DPP v. BAMBRICK
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS
-v-
MICHAEL BAMBRICK

Citations:

AG V O'CALLAGHAN 1966 IR 501

OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE (AMDT) ACT 1940 PART II

OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE (AMDT) ACT 1940 S3(2)

OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE (AMDT) ACT 1940 S3(5)

OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE (AMDT) ACT 1940 S4(1)

RYAN V DPP 1989 IR 399

CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 1984 S11

DPP V JACKSON UNREP CCA 26.4.93

DPP V G 1994 1 IR 587

DPP, PEOPLE V TIERNAN 1988 IR 250

CONSTITUTION ART 40

PREVENTION OF CRIME ACT 1908

Synopsis:

CRIMINAL LAW

Sentence

Manslaughter - Repetition - Occasion - Sexual intercourse - Death of two women within twelve months - Deaths during aberrational intercourse including bondage - Counts of murder and manslaughter - Acceptance of pleas of guilty to manslaughters - Trial judge's desire to protect public for extended period - Preventative detention not part of criminal law - Penal servitude for 15 years on first count - Penal servitude for 18 years on second count - Concurrent sentences - (Central Criminal Court - Carney J. - 26/7/96) - [1996] 1 I.R. 265

|The People v. Bambrick|

1

Sentence imposed the 26th day of July, 1996by Carney J.

2

The Court acts on the basis of the material placed before it and it is not my function to direct the proofs of either side. It will have been manifestly clear to anyone concerned with this case that two matters would concern me. They are:-

3

(1) the propensity of the accused to reoffend, and

4

(2) the constitutional problems which I have adverted to in previous written judgments where a life sentence appears to be a non mandatoryoption,

5

but neither side have chosen to give me any assistance in relation to either of these matters.

6

The accused is charged on Count No. 1 that on a date unknown between the 1st day of September, 1991 and the 28th day of February, 1992 in the County of the City of Dublin he murdered Patricia Mc Gauley contrary to Common Law. To this count he pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter and this plea was accepted by the Director of PublicProsecutions.

7

On Count No. 2 the accused was charged that on a date unknown between the 1st day of July, 1992 and the 31st day of December, 1992 in the County of the City of Dublin he murdered Mary Cummins contrary to Common Law. To this count he pleaded not guiltyto murder but guilty to manslaughter and this plea was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

8

Patricia Mc Gauley had been reported missing by the accused, her partner at the time, on the 15th September, 1991. She had two children by the accused. Mary Cummins had been reported missing by a friend of hers on the 24th July, 1992. She was a single parent with a daughter aged5.

9

The details of the killings have been provided more or less exclusively by the accused. He gave the following description to the Guards:-

"I met Patricia Mc Gauley in 1982 in a pub in Caple Street. I started doing a line with her and she moved in with me to St. Theresas Gdns. At No. 311. Around the end of 1983 she got pregnant and the baby was born in August 1984. We called the baby Adrienne, we had a second baby girl in August 1990, we called it Louise. Our relationship was up and down since we met. Patricia used drink a lot, she like the drink, we had a lot of rows over her going out drinking and Patricia was on to me about not working. One evening in September 1991 myself and Patricia went out drinking in the Advocat, it is now named the Copper Still. Patricia left the children down at her mothers before we went drinking. I drank about six pints of Guinness and Patricia had four pints of Tennants. We left the pub at closing time and on the way down to her mothers to collect the kids we had an argument. I said it was too late and I think she had an argument with her mother over the same thing. Patricia went into her mother's house on her own. We left the house with the two kids and got a taxi home to 57 St. Ronans Park where we had been living since 1986. We put the kids up to bed first, the argument started up again in thehouse about cigarettes, she wanted me to go back down to the garage to get cigarettes for her, we were only after passing the garage a short while before. At this stage we were shouting at one another, the argument died down a bit, we were in the sitting room, we then went up to the bedroom and we were making love. I had her hands tied behind her back with a pair of tights. I then put tights in her mouth and tied them around the back of her head, sometimes she let me do this, she didn't like it all the time. I heard her gasping and I realised she was dead. I think she turned blue. I had the tights so tight around her head, I went downstairs to the kitchen and got a scissors to cut the tights. I panicked. I didn't know what to do. I then put the body in the in the box room and I closed the door. The next morning I took the two kids to Warrenmount School where I was working, Adrienne minding Louise. When I finished work I went down to Patricia's mother's house to collect the buggy and her mother gave me money she had collected in the Post Office for Patricia. I then went home with the two children. I didn't know what to do. I went up to Ronanstown Garda Station. I got as far as the gate. I lost courage and turned back. The next day, Friday I cut up the body of Patricia, the body was still in the box room. There was a plastic bag underneath her and a big old towel. I cut the body by using a paper knife on the skin and a junior hacksaw to cut the bones. I cut off the arms legs and head and put them into a large black refuse sack and I put the rest of the body into another black plastic bag. I also put the towel and the plastic she was lying on into this bag. That night I took the arms legs and head to Balgaddy dump, I went up on my bicycle. I just put them down where all the other bags were and I took them out of the bags and covered them with dirt, with my hands. On Saturday thenext day I took the rest of the body to the same dump and dumped it there. I covered this with other rubbish bags. I will show where I dumped them. Sometime this year I gave all my tools to Frances Murray, 12 Cherryorchard Grove, Ballyfermot and the hacksaw is in that case of tools, the same blade is not in it. Around July of 1992 I met a girl by the name of Mary Cummins in Carrs Pub. Adrienne my daughter was with me. I had three pints and I bought one pint for Mary Cummins. Mary Cummins and myself and Adrienne left the pub together. I invited Mary for a drink to Ballyfermot, she said she had to leave her messages down to her flat first. The flat was near St. Patrick's Church. I can't remember the name of the place. The three of us went into Mary's flat and she left the messages there and the three of us left and got a taxi from Christchurch to my home in Saint Ronans Park, I got a babysitter for Adrienne, Catherine Cully and myself and Mary went to Finches Pub in Clondalkin and we had three or four pints each. We left there and went down to 79 Pub, Ballyfermot and we had a few more drinks there. We left at closing time and got a taxi back up St. Ronans Park. Catherine Cully and Adrienne were up. Catherine went home and my daughter went to bed. Me and Mary were in the sitting room. We started kissing and I was feeling her. I know I tied her up and gagged her. I tied her up by tying her hands behind her back with a belt and I stuffed tights into her mouth and tied her the same way I had tied Patricia. I then put my fingers up her vagina, the next thing I knew she was dead. She was on the sofa at this stage. I took the gag off her and the belt. I then took the body and left it in the box room. I was afraid, I didn't know what to do. I didn't think of getting a doctor, I was too afraid. The next day I cut off Mary's legs with the hacksaw and put them intoblack refuse bags and put the rest into another refuse bag. I put two more bags outside these bags, the way the body would not fall out. I then put the body into my wheelbarrow and I took it up to big fields near Balgaddy School. I took the body out of the bags and buried it under other rubbish that was there. I took the clothes off the body and I burned them in the fire at home. I left the suspender belt and tights on her. I will show where I dumped the body. Adrienne said to me the next morning something about the lady leaving her shoes behind her. I said to Adrienne they were old shoes and she did not want them. I burned these in the fire as well. I don't know what came over me either of these occasions. I don't know how to explain it. I got enjoyment out of stuffing the tights in their mouths. I now realise the danger of what I did on these occasions."

10

The accused is known to have had sexual relations in the manner described on at least five other occasions which did not result in the death of his partner. His killing of Mary Cummins with the knowledge of what he had done to Patricia Mc Gauley must satisfy me that he has a propensity to reoffend. He is of an age that he is liable to be sexually active on release with remission from any determinate sentence. The probability is that he will have a pent-up appetite for his form of bondage fuelled by group fantasising with other sexual offenders in Arbour Hill Prison.

11

If I were to protect the community and at the same time protect the accused from himself it would be necessary for me to sentence him to life imprisonment with the possibility of his release after a substantial punitive period had expired when, but only when, the Minister's expert advisors were fully satisfied that he no longer posed a danger or threat toany member of the community and women in particular. This is the approach which I would wish to take to the case.

12

Interpretations of the Constitution which are binding on me persuade me that I am not free under the...

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