'Miscarriage of justice' claim at inquest hearing

THE partner of a 46-year-old woman stabbed to death more than seven years ago by a teenage son who was high on drugs told an inquest into her death today (Monday) she should still be alive but for 'a miscarriage of justice'.

Michael Kelly informed the coroner for Mayo, Patrick O'Connor, and a jury at the coroner's court in Castlebar that the late Noreen Kelly, Islandeady, Castlebar, pleaded for help for her son at a district court hearing three weeks before her death on the grounds he was 'sick'.

Mr. Kelly explained that his partner, a single mother, accompanied her son, Celyn Eadon, to the court where he faced a charge of not turning up in court. The judge sentenced Eadon to 10 days in prison and ordered a pyschiatric evaluation.

Mr. Kelly said that after the killing it emerged the warrant had been lost.

He had wanted to put this to the jury at Eadon's subsequent trial but the prosecution and defence thought the matter was not relevant.

“It's a miscarriage of justice,” Mr. Kelly stated. “She (Noreen) should still be here.”

Celyn Eadon, who was 19 at the time he murdered his mother, stabbing her 19 times, is serving a sentence of life in prison for the crime.

His trial at the Central Criminal Court heard that Eadon had begun taking drugs at an early age. Ms. Kelly had taken drugs from her son's bedroom and burnt them on the evening before she died.

The coroner, Mr. O'Connor, told the deceased's partner, Mr. Kelly, the powers of an inquest were very limited. He explained that the court could not make any determination in relation to liabillity, culpability or responsibility.

A seven-person inquest jury returned a verdict of murder.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Mr. O'Connor said words could not express the horror of what had happened.