A 32-year-old man accused of murdering three members of his family in their Co Louth home described to gardaí how his mother had asked him to let his younger brother with special needs go as he held them at knifepoint, a jury has heard.
Robert O’Connor, of Drumgowna, Louth Village, Dundalk, Co Louth, has pleaded not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, or guilty of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility, over the killings of his mother Louise (56), his father Mark (54) and his younger brother Evan (27) at their home between September 28th and 29th, 2025, both dates inclusive.
The Central Criminal Court jury has been told the accused accepts he caused the deaths of the three victims.
At the outset of Robert’s first interview at Drogheda Garda station at 5pm on September 29th last year, the accused’s solicitor told officers his client has schizophrenia and could not remember the last time he took his medication.
The solicitor explained that the accused had seen a doctor earlier that day, but Robert said he did not remember seeing one. When the accused was asked by gardaí to tell them in his own words what had happened, Robert replied: “I don’t know what to tell you, I really don’t.”
When gardaí asked him to tell them what he remembered, Robert said that the Friday was “normal enough”.
Robert said his father, mother and brother were in the house at the time. The accused said he could not remember what they had for dinner, but he had gone upstairs to “do some cocaine”.
He said his parents then called him back down, as they wanted to talk about his cocaine use and were not comfortable with it happening in the house. “Aside from my mates, they are the only people I had in this world, I don’t know why I did it,” he added.
Gardaí asked the accused what he meant when he said “did it”. The accused replied “murdering them”.
Robert said the conversation with his parents about violence in the house and whether he wanted to stop using cocaine continued. He left the room, went upstairs, took cocaine and watched pornography.
When he returned he saw “them all sitting in the sittingroom” and “got a knife – all angry and sh*t”.
“I went into the sittingroom and walked over with the knife and asked my mother why she didn’t feel empathy and why she didn’t feel the pain,” he said.
Robert said he “slashed” his mother first “on the head”.
The accused told detectives he was pointing a knife at the three members of his family and telling them “not to be opening their mouths at the one time”.
Robert said his mother went for the door. “I slammed it back shut and said get the f**k back in there.”
He said his father charged at him to try to get out the door, but he thought he stuck “it in his stomach or something”. The accused said to gardaí: “Can I please not give details about the stabbing.
“I stabbed them multiple times, I can’t remember.”
He told gardaí he thought his brother’s iPad “changed the reality” and that his brother was “like a programmer”.
“I wanted him to get the iPad and undo everything that happened,” he added.
Asked what had happened “after the murders occurred”, Robert said he thought “they went down the hall” and “it started freaking me out when my dad wasn’t dying, loads of blood was coming out, I don’t want to revisit it”.
When asked whether he wanted to change or add anything to his statement, Robert said: “I wish to add that my mother asked me to let Evan go.”
“Is it fair to say you are telling us you murdered them?” asked gardaí, to which the accused replied: “Yes.”
The trial continues on Thursday before Judge Mícheál P O’Higgins and a jury of six men and six women.