Pensioner killing '˜sheer inhumanity'

Belfast Crown Court heard the “virtually naked’’ Eddie Girvan was stabbed in the chest and then cried out “murder, murder”before Margaret Henderson-McCarroll stuffed his mouth with kitchen roll, gagged him and bound his hands and feet to a chair.

However, a defence QC for Margaret Henderson-McCarroll disputed the prosecution assertion, stating that instead of shouting out ‘’murder, murder” the 67-year-old was in fact shouting out her name “Margaret, Margaret”.

Henderson, 31, formerly of a hostel in Verner Street, Belfast, pleaded guilty last month to his manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The mother-of-two admitted unlawfully killing the 67-year-old in his Station Road home in Greenisland while high on a cocktail of heroin and crystal meth drugs

She further admitted eight other charges arising out of the killing including theft, attempted theft, aggravated vehicle taking causing damage, dangerous driving, driving when unfit through drink or drugs, driving without insurance, failing to stop and failing to report an accident.

Prosecution counsel Charles McCreanor QC told Mr Justice Treacy that Mr Girvan and Henderson-McCarroll had been known to each other for some years.

“She would come and stay with the deceased at his home and he would pay her for sexual relations,’’ said the prosecution counsel.

He told the court that the killing of Mr Girvan was only discovered by police who were carrying out a separate investigation into a hit and run incident involving his Hyundai car near at Customs House Square in Belfast city centre.

When police officers first went to his home on January 18, 2016, they got no response.

Mr Justice Treacy was told that in a separate incident, Henderson McCarroll was arrested on foot of an unrelated bench warrant and while in police custody she was found to have in her possession a Sat Nav device, a gents Zodiac watch, a pair of binoculars, a torch, a chain and two sets of car keys to Mr Girvan’s Hyundai and Saab cars.

The court heard that Henderson-McCarroll told police she found the possessions and was trying sell them to buy drugs. In fact, said Mr McCreanor, the defendant had sold the chain for £60.

After examining the Sat Nav device, police discovered it showed up Mr Girvan’s home address at Station Road in Greenisland.

Police went to Mr Girvan’s home again to force entry as they had “concerns for his safety”, but eventually gained access “and inside found Mr Girvan”.

Said the prosecution counsel: “He was virtually naked, bound and gagged, seated in a room on the ground floor.’’