Man (39) convicted of murdering his mother in her own home

Eoin Reynolds

A jury has convicted a 39-year-old man of murder, rejecting his claim that he was provoked and defending himself from an attack by his ailing 58-year-old mother, whom he strangled and smothered to death in her own home.

Nigel Canavan claimed that stab wounds to each of Angela Canavan's thighs, one of which tracked to 13.5cm in depth, were self-inflicted by his mother.

He claimed that he had acted in self-defence when his mother, who had a brain injury from a fall four years before her death, attacked him by swinging her open hands at him and trying to kick him.

Taking the stand at his Central Criminal Court trial, Canavan further accused his mother of deliberately provoking him by calling him the worst son in the world and saying she wished she had never had him during a heated argument.

The jury of 10 women and two men spent over five hours considering their verdict before rejecting Canavan's self-defence claim. They also rejected the suggestion that his mother's alleged insults so provoked him that he could be found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder.

A pathologist found that besides being strangled and smothered, Ms Canavan had suffered a laceration to the top of her head, bruises to her face, body, arms and legs and three broken ribs.

Some injuries indicated she tried to defend herself from an attack, and bruises to her chest suggested she had been manhandled before her death.

Canavan, with an address at Erris Gardens, Crossmolina, Co Mayo, had pleaded not guilty to his mother's murder at her home in St John's Terrace, Co Sligo on May 1st, 2023.

Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo will sentence Canavan to the mandatory term of life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing on June 3rd, when Ms Canavan's other son, Keith Canavan, will make a statement to the court.