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Angela Finnegan, the mother of the murder victim Philip Finnega, said: "I'm trying to remove the body of Philadelphia and get rid of your evil pest hand." No mother should do this. Photo: Collins Court

The mother of a man who was missing for three weeks before his beheaded body was found in a shallow grave, said she was “wrong” to accept the murder of her son during the trial.

Angela Finnegan's son Philip was murdered by Stephen Penrose. She emphasized that when he cross-examined her on the witness stand, the double killer caused "more" to her family. Torture".

She said that no mother should sit on the witness stand and be questioned by the murderer of her son. "This is wrong and shouldn't happen. I believe that in your twisted mind, you fired your legal team, causing more pain, heartache and pain to me and my family," she added .

Ms. Finnegan also talked about how she made sure that her hand was the last to touch her son's body three weeks after her son was murdered. "I want to say in a sense that I'm trying to remove your evil hands from Philadelphia's body. No mother should do this," she said.

On the second day of the case, Penrose appeared in court on his behalf after dismissing his legal team and questioned Mrs. Finnegan. She told him that she believed another man was involved in the murder of her son. However, Mrs. Finnegan also agreed with the prosecution's lawyer Brendan Grehan SC that the person she mentioned was in Portlaoise prison when her son disappeared.

The testimony was part of an emotional victim impact statement read to the Central Criminal Court on Monday. Penrose, 38, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his friend Mr. Finnegan.

Last month, 17-year-old Penrose, a convicted killer of Newtown Court, Kurokal Malahide Road, Dublin, was unanimously convicted of murdering Mr. Finnegan (24 years old) by a jury in Rahin Woods, Rahin, Edenderry, Co Kildare on August 10, 2016. ). He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

This is the second time Penrose has been tried for murder. In 2010, a jury at the Central Criminal Court ruled that the murderer was not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter because he admitted to stabbing David Sharkey (28 years old) to death after a drug quarrel in Navin, and then put the body in boot. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for that crime.

Assistant National Pathologist Dr. Margaret Bolster provided evidence during the trial and found that the beheaded remains of Mr. Finnegan were curled up in the grave and attempted to burn his body. According to expert witnesses, Mr. Finnegan's death was caused by multiple stab wounds on the body, including two fatal injuries to the liver and aorta.

Mrs. Finnegan said in the statement that on August 10, 2016, "Philadelphia" never returned home, and the lives of her family have changed forever. "Shock, panic, and pain were unbearable. Three weeks later, Philadelphia was discovered. God answered our prayers," she said.

Mrs. Finnegan said that Penrose's "horrible and terrible death" to Philip left them "traumatic and scarred" for the rest of their lives. "We don't live, we just exist. Philadelphia is a son, father, brother, and uncle. All of our tomorrow is taken away," she continued.

She said, "The greatest gift in life is the heart of a child, my child."

She said that when Philip was born, the midwife put him on his chest. "I gave him his first kiss, so I had to give my son his last kiss. I rubbed my son's body with my hands, and his mother's hand was the last hand that touched my baby's body. I think In a way, I want to remove your evil pest hand from the corpse in Philadelphia. No mother should do this.

"I will never forget the smell I had to endure when I opened the coffin in Philadelphia for the last time to see him. The coffin in Philadelphia had to be closed because his body was so badly decomposed.

"His siblings have never kissed him because I am worried that it will cause psychological harm to them and his children. Philadelphia is not yours, he is mine."

Speaking of the five-week trial at the Central Criminal Court that began on October 13, Mrs. Finnegan said: "After you took the pain that Philadelphia caused to our family from us, it was not enough for you. During the trial, when you cross-examined me on the witness stand, you had to cause more torture."

She said that no mother should sit on the witness stand to be questioned by the man who murdered her son, and then went on to say: "This is wrong and should not happen. I believe that in your twisted mind, you fired yours. The legal team has brought more pain, heartache and pain to me and my family."

Speaking of the family's love for Philip, Mrs. Finnegan said that after five years, the pain has not been relieved. "Philadelphia has a heart of gold and will always help anyone in need. I miss his infectious smile, heart of gold and all the laughter, chats and hugs, and "I love you, mom." I love you, my son."

In the second victim impact statement entitled "Our Dad", Mrs. Finnegan said that the deceased had four "beautiful children", but his youngest son had never met his father because he was at Philip He was not born when he died.

"His new son was born in February 2017. Philadelphia loved his child wholeheartedly and was the only caregiver for his child when he died.

"The children still don’t understand why their dad must go to heaven. The children in Philadelphia receive treatment to help them get rid of the pain of losing their father. The children miss too much. They have to rely on their uncles to take them to a football game, and they The nanny has to participate in other activities with them.

"When they were playing with their cousins ​​at home, they called their dad, and I saw the expression on their little faces, they didn't have a dad to call. It was heartbreaking.

"Philadelphia missed the great event of their life, and they missed it because he is not here to share special moments and experiences with them. The children in Philadelphia don't know how he died, but one day I will have to tell them. How their father died so tragically. I don't know what effect this will have on them. All I can do now is love them and take care of them as much as I can," she concluded.

Mrs. Finnegan then thanked several people, including the person who found her son's body in Rahin Woods in August 2016.

Since then, Justice Alexander Owens sentenced Penrose to life imprisonment for murder. The sentence dates back to May 17, 2017, when he was detained.

Penrose attended the court hearing, and he told the judge that he wanted to speak in the court. "You can't talk at this particular time," Judge Owens replied.

Earlier, Superintendent Brian O'Keeffe told the court that Penrose's previous conviction included the manslaughter of David Sharkey, and he was sentenced to nine years in prison. The date of his release for the crime was February 5, 2016.

His other previous convictions include possession of two shotguns and ammunition, one hit and run, three assaults on three prison guards, and threats to kill or cause serious injury to prison service personnel.

Justice Owens asked Mr. Graham whether Penrose was still serving his sentence at the time of trial. In response, Mr. Grehan stated that the defendant had indicated to the court that he believed that he had not served his sentence on the trial date, but that the defendant has been detained since May 17, 2017. Officer O'Keeffe told the judge that he did not agree with this.

Last month, 12 jurors unanimously dismissed Penrose’s defense that he was the last time he saw Mr. Finnegan stabbed in the back when a group of people was attacked in the "forest" or "near the woods" and arranged to be taken from them Collect guns.

The jury accepted the prosecution's allegations that Mr. Finnegan suffered a "terrible death" under the hands of Penrose and attempted to cut and burn the victim's body. In the opening speech, Mr. Graham, the lawyer of the Democratic Progressive Party, said that Penrose "lied after another" told Garday where he saw Mr. Finnegan the last time, in order to "prevent them from discovering the location of the body, and Keep them away from the smelling trees of Lahin."

The trial heard that Mr. Finnegan had been missing for just over three weeks, and then a dog walker and his two pets found his "skeleton" remains in Rahin Woods on September 2, 2016.

The pathologist provided evidence that most of the 13 stab wounds were on Mr. Finnegan's back.

After recovering the skin that "slipped" from the fingers from the soil of the cemetery, the identity of the father of the four children was confirmed through fingerprints.

A forensic scientist provided evidence that the DNA profile of a bloody glove found near Mr. Finnegan's remains matched Penrose's DNA.

The defendant exempted the two legal teams during the trial, and sometimes "re-contacted" them just to "dismiss" their services again.

In the absence of the jury, Judge Owens stated that he considered these "recruitment and dismissal" to be a serious abuse of the legal system, and any litigant who allowed "arbitrary" dismissal of lawyers in this way "none at all."

While representing himself in the trial, Penrose was “furious” in court and accused a police officer he was questioning of swearing a lie. "He was talking nonsense about me," Penrose yelled, and then demanded that the witness be "expelled" from his trial because his "words" could not be accepted.

Penrose refused to continue to participate in his trial after that, saying that he would represent himself "from the cell". The defendant called his trial a "misconduct" and stated that he had no confidence in his former legal team to carry out his instructions. The case went on in his absence for the next four weeks.

Penrose had previously refused to provide evidence for his defense or make a closing statement, and he asked not to appear in court to accept the verdict.

On the afternoon of August 10, Mr. Finnegan was alive with Penrose for the last time at the Sweeney's gas station in Edenderry, Co Offaly. Rahin Woods is located a few kilometers north of the gas station, where a man found the body of the deceased while walking his two dogs 23 days later.

In the prosecution's case, Penrose murdered Mr. Finnegan shortly after seeing him leaving the garage in the defendant's blue Alfa Romeo car, which had a distinctive dark hood and alloy wheels. CCTV footage showed that at 4:10 in the afternoon that day, the two passed by Grangewest in Co Kildare and then headed towards Rahin Woods.

At 5:13 in the afternoon, the same blue car was seen in a CCTV video of Balrinnet in Co. Kildare, not far east of Lachine Forest. The prosecution's case was that Mr. Finnegan entered Lachine Forest with Penrose after 4:10 pm, and he suffered a "terrible death" within that hour.

There is also evidence that Penrose’s cell phone is connected to a mobile site that covers the Rahin area of ​​Edenderry and is close to the area where the victim’s body was found. The last activity on the deceased's mobile phone was to confirm two Edenderry mobile sites in the afternoon of the same day.

Penrose was arrested for the first time on August 31, 2016, on charges of withholding information about a serious attack on Mr. Finnegan, and was interviewed ten times at Kilmainham Garda station.

The defendant told Gardai in these interviews that he and Mr. Finnegan met some men in a black car that day. Penrose insisted that before Mr. Finnegan was "tied up" into the black car, a man stabbed the driver's left arm from his car window. The defendant said that he then drove away at high speed.

Penrose went on to tell Gardai that he heard that his missing friend was "sitting in Jamaica and eating a Big Mac" and that he was "hacked to death" in the Dublin Mountains. The defendant insisted that he would not stand trial for "any Finnegans". "Lock me up. I will swing on the rope. I don't know anything," he said.

After the body of Mr. Finnegan was found, Penrose was arrested again on November 16, 2016 on suspicion of murdering his friend on August 10, and gave nine interviews at Leixlip Garda Station . In his first interview, he showed Gardai a handwritten statement saying: "I have nothing to do with Philip's killing. All of this has nothing to do with me, that's why I tried to keep a distance from it."

In his 19 interviews, the defendant provided detectives with at least five different locations, indicating where he last saw Mr. Finnegan. Penrose initially stated that both he and Mr. Finnegan were attacked by a group of people in the Kilcock suburb of Co Kildare.

However, it was not until the 18th interview that Penrose told the detectives that he saw Mr. Finnegan stabbed in the "forest" or "near the woods" and he had arranged to collect guns from this group of people.

Officials asked Penrose in the last interview if he asked Mr. Finnegan to "dig his own grave" in Kildare Woodland where his body was finally found. "You were fully prepared when you came: you came with your fork, your shovel, your gloves, your gasoline tank, and your knife. Did you let him dig his own grave?" Gardé asked .

In the accusation against the jury, Judge Owens stated that the state’s case was that the “only logical explanation” for the defendant’s lie was that he did not want to reveal his departure from Mr. Finnegan’s position in Rahin Woods because it would lead to Gardai went to find the body.

The deceased’s mother Angela Finnegan told the jury that the last words her son Philip said to her was on the morning of August 10, 2016, when he was about to meet Penrose, “I’ll see you again. mother". Philip and Penrose only became friends that month, and Angela said that when he called the apartment at Mary Aikenhead House on James Street in Dublin, she briefly met with the defendant.

Mrs. Finnegan agreed with Mr. Grehan's view that her second eldest son Philip "has had some problems over the years" and has become accustomed to wearing a protective vest. She recalled that Philip was wearing a "Fila" shirt, cream stab-resistant vest, track pants and running shoes that morning.

The mother of six said that later that morning, when Philip was looking for a route to Clover Hill Court, she contacted Philip. Later that day, she called her son again and asked him to go home.

Mrs. Finnegan tried to contact Philip at 4:40 pm that day, but could not be reached. "I know something went wrong, there is no ringtone, my impression is that the phone is off. I have been trying to call him," she said.

The next evening, Mrs. Finnegan went to the Garda station on Kevin Street to report her son's disappearance and told Garday that he was going to see Penrose.

Paramedic Terry Devine said that he received a call at 6:45 pm on August 10, 2016, asking him to take care of a stabbed person in Kilcock. When he got there, Penrose wrapped his socks around the wound on the inside of his left wrist. "He said he was stabbed, but it was very vague," the witness said.

On August 12, Detective Garda Robert Fitzharris went to Beaumont Hospital to talk to the defendant to determine if he knew the whereabouts of his known accomplice, Mr. Finnegan. Penrose told detectives that at least five men were involved in an accident in Kilcock. He saw a man hit Mr. Finnegan on the head with a pipe or hammer. Penrose said he was stabbed in the arm and quickly escaped by car.

Penrose's father, Paul Penrose, told the jury that he had met Philip and described him as a "very nice boy" and "very friendly". Mr. Penrose also told his son's murder trial that Stephen and Philip had been chatting in his car "as if they had known each other all their lives", just two days before Mr. Finnegan was killed. Mr. Penrose described seeing his son and Mr. Finnegan "a big hug" outside Philip's house on James Street in the southern inner city.

Dog walker Mick Kelly testified that at 8:10 pm on September 2, 2016, he took two dogs for a walk in Rahin Woods. And began to jump around. Mr. Kelly saw something protruding from the ground "like a plant" and took a stick behind it. The witness said: "When I put the stick on the ground, I saw meat or meat on the stick, and I knew there was something in it that shouldn't be put in it."

Garda inspector Aidan Hannon told the trial that he went to the scene of Rahin Woods the next day and saw a stab-resistant vest in the soil, which "strongly convinced him" that the remains belonged to Mr. Finnegan.

Garda Padraig Nolan, a member of the district search team that arrived in Rahin Woods on September 6, said he found a garden glove that was severely damaged by a fire 5 meters away from human remains.

Ms. Lorraine Buckley, a forensic anthropologist who specializes in skeletal remains, testified that when the body was removed from the shallow grave in Rahin Woods, she noticed a burning smell or “smoky smell”.

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