A MAN ACCUSED of murdering an 89-year-old Tipperary woman, denied choking her and telling her daughter to \u201cmurder her\u201d, his trial heard Friday.<\/p>\n
The alleged \u201cmurder her\u201d comment was captured on an audio file recorded on the accused\u2019s mobile phone, on the night before the alleged killing, it was heard.<\/p>\n
African native Hasan Ali Gori (52) denies murdering his then girlfriend\u2019s mother, 89-year-old Josephine \u201cJosie\u201d Ray, at her home on 4 August 2024.<\/p>\n
Josie was found, in her bed, allegedly strangled and smothered and with 44 bruises to her head and body, heard the Central Criminal Court in Limerick.<\/p>\n
Gori was living with Josie Ray and her daughter Mary at the time, and he was in a relationship with Mary Ray, who the court heard has an intellectual disability and is a \u201cvulnerable\u201d person.<\/p>\n
Josie Ray did not approve of Mary\u2019s relationship with Gori, and had called him a \u201cblack bastard\u201d on a number of occasions and had previously hit him with a poker, witnesses told the court.<\/p>\n
Neighbours and members of the Ray family told the court that Josie, Mary and the accused were constantly \u201cfighting\u201d and \u201carguing\u201d with one another and that their rows were often \u201cvolatile\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mary Ray, who it was alleged sometimes found it difficult to control her emotions due to her learning disability, had, nine years previously, threatened to stab her mother with a knife outside their house, a neighbour claimed in court.<\/p>\n
Today, extracts of an audio recording of Gori and Mary Ray arguing, and which was found on Gori\u2019s mobile phone after it was seized by garda\u00ed, was played in court.<\/p>\n
The prosecution claim that during the three-and-a-half hour recording Gori is heard telling Mary Ray they should go to court to resolve arguments over their housing situation.<\/p>\n
In the audio, played in court, Mary Ray was heard replying to Gori, \u201cno, no, can\u2019t say nothing to my mother\u201d.<\/p>\n
The prosecution, led by senior counsel, Lorcan Connolly, alleged that Gori\u2019s response in the recording is \u201cmurder her\u201d.<\/p>\n
A video recording of Gori being interviewed under caution by garda\u00ed was also played in court, in which the accused repeatedly told garda\u00ed he did not say \u201cmurder her\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gori claimed he told Mary Ray \u201cmurder ba\u201d and not \u201cmurder her\u201d.<\/p>\n
The jury heard that when garda\u00ed asked Gori what \u201cba\u201d meant, he replied there was no \u201cba\u201d in the English language and that it was in his native language.<\/p>\n
Neighbours told garda\u00ed they heard Gori and Mary Ray arguing outside her mother\u2019s house on the evening before she was found dead.<\/p>\n
One neighbour told garda\u00ed they overheard Gori telling Mary Ray: \u201cI don\u2019t want to live with your mother, I want to live there just ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gori told garda\u00ed he did not know anything about this. He told detectives: \u201cI\u2019m pleading not guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gori also told garda\u00ed he did not recall telling Mary Ray that he was sick of living with Josie and that either she or he would have to leave the house, as alleged by another neighbour.<\/p>\n
When it was put to Gori that he had choked Josie Ray in her bed in the early hours of 4 August 2024, he replied: \u201cPlease, Mr Detective, I know nothing, it\u2019s a false allegation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed responded to a call of a disturbance at Josie Ray\u2019s house on the night before her body was found at the property, in which garda\u00ed advised Gori and Mary Ray to keep the noise down following a report of a row taking place at the house.<\/p>\n
Following his arrest, garda\u00ed asked Gori if Josie Ray was \u201cafraid\u201d of him and he replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know, when someone hates you because of the colour of your skin, it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked who he was referring to, Gori replied he was talking about some of Mary\u2019s relatives.<\/p>\n
A social worker who had visited Josie Ray in the months prior to her death said that whenever she mentioned Gori\u2019s name to Josie, it seemed to make her \u201cnervous\u201d.<\/p>\n
The witness said Josie Ray told her she did not want to return to her house while the accused was living there.<\/p>\n
State Pathologist, Dr Yvonne McCartney, who conducted a post-mortem on Josie Ray\u2019s remains, gave evidence earlier that, in her opinion, Josie Ray died of \u201cstrangulation\u201d and \u201csmothering\u201d.<\/p>\n
A forensic scientist, Dr Stephen Clifford, told the court the accused\u2019s DNA was found on forensic swabs taken of Josie Ray\u2019s right hand and fingernails.<\/p>\n
Dr Clifford said this \u201cmay not be significant\u201d as DNA can be transferred from person to person in shared accommodation and without them touching.<\/p>\n
The trial continues Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A MAN ACCUSED of murdering an 89-year-old Tipperary woman, denied choking her and telling her daughter to \u201cmurder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42851,54,283483,61,60,55350,25822,43,9123],"class_list":["post-670605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-courts","tag-hasan-ali-gori","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-josephine-ray","tag-nenagh","tag-news","tag-tipperary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}