Son (33) charged with murder of Michael Whelan in Dublin
Tom Tuite
A man has been remanded in custody after being charged with murdering his father, who was found dead in his Dublin home earlier this week.
Michael Whelan (64), known to friends and neighbours as 'Mick the handyman' or 'American Mick', was discovered with serious injuries, including stab wounds, on Tuesday afternoon.
His remains were discovered when gardaí carried out a welfare check at his flat in Herberton Park, Rialto, Dublin 8.
Gardaí arrested Seth Whelan (33), who lived at the same address as the deceased, on Wednesday morning and brought him to Kilmainham Garda station for questioning.
He was charged and held pending his appearance before Judge Shalom Binchy at Dublin District Court on Thursday evening.
Mr Whelan is accused of murdering his father in their flat on a date between February 19th and 27th. He is also accused of producing a table leg and a knife as weapons over the same period.
The 33-year-old is further charged with causing criminal damage to a Ring doorbell at a neighbouring property on February 20th.
Dressed in a navy jumper, light grey tracksuit bottoms and black shoes, the accused sat with his head bowed throughout the brief hearing on Thursday.
Detective Sergeant Daniel Charles told the court he arrested the accused at 3:20pm and Mr Whelan made no reply to caution, "but indicated he understood the reason for his arrest".
A short time later, the offences were put to him and "he made no reply to any of the charges after caution," the garda said.
The District Court cannot consider bail in a murder case, which requires an application to the High Court.
Judge Binchy remanded Mr Whelan in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on March 7th.
She also acceded to a request from defence solicitor Sandra Frayne to direct that the accused gets psychiatric attention in custody.
Mr Whelan did not address the court and communicated only to inform his solicitor that he agreed to appear via videolink at his next hearing.
Legal aid was granted after Ms Frayne submitted a statement of her client's means to the court.
