A murder trial defendant answered “no comment” to police as they accused him of setting a fatal fire in a woman’s home to cover his tracks.
David McCabe, 32, initially denied burgling the home of Teresa Ryan on Warton Street, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough in police interviews.
Then he admitted burgling her home, walking in through an ajar front door while she was out on July 8 last year, then selling her belongings to buy drugs.
He said he stole a TV and phone from her property the day before she died from smoke inhalation in a fire at the house.
He said he sold the television for £25 then overdosed on six diazepam tablets, “flaked out” and ended up in A&E.
He told officers: “I woke up in hospital and all the family were saying ‘you’ve died for 26 minutes’ off the tablets.”
Asked why he burgled her house, he said: “Just to get some gear. That’s as far as I’ve done. I haven’t caused a fire or anything.”
He was asked whether he wanted to be friends with Ms Ryan because she was a vulnerable person living alone.
“You saw her as a soft touch,” a detective said to him. McCabe replied: “No, not at all.”
He maintained he did not go to her home on July 9, the day she died and her 50th birthday, Teesside Crown Court heard today.
The prosecution says he got into Ms Ryan’s house and robbed her of her handbag after a struggle that night.
It is alleged she was rendered unconscious, McCabe set fire to her bed and left her to die from smoke inhalation.
“This is possibly the most important couple of days of your life. You’ve been arrested for murder,” he was told in the interview three days after the fire.
In another interview the next day, McCabe was asked whether he set fire to the home, accidentally or deliberately.
The interviewing detective said McCabe’s account of helping Ms Ryan made him seem like “a real knight in shining armour”.
“That’s a lie, isn’t it?” he was asked. “You just wanted her to think you were helping her so you could steal from her to feed your drug habit.
“Did you hit her? Did you fling her on the settee? Was she looking scared? How did it make you feel the last time you saw her?
“Skinny drug-ravaged body from heroin addiction, still more than a match for a weak lady with Huntington’s disease, aren’t you?
“Is that why you picked on her because she was an easy target? You’d be no match for the average man. She wouldn’t be able to fight back, would she?
“What happened, David? This is your last chance to tell us what happened if you want to.
“Did you panic? Is that why you set the fire, or was the fire an accident?”
It was put to him that Ms Ryan had her phone on the day she died as her son topped it up.
McCabe was told: “The only way you could have that phone is if you went around there at the time Teresa died, at the time you murdered her.”
To all of these questions, he answered: “No comment.”
He was interviewed again on August 27 and said “no comment” when asked whether he was responsible for Ms Ryan’s death.
He said: “I’ve given my account of my whereabouts, my movements. I’ve given the truth about everything.
“If I had any information to help with the case I would help you, but I don’t know anything about it.”
The interviewing officer said: “You went to the house, fought with her and ripped the handbag from her. Is that true?
“You panicked as she fell, and set this fire to cover up your tracks.”
McCabe replied: “No comment.”
Donovan Moore, the partner of McCabe’s cousin Tina McCabe, told how McCabe came to their home on the night of July 9.
He said McCabe had cigarettes, a phone and money which he said he had got from a woman friend in North Ormesby.
In a statement at the time, he quoted McCabe as saying: “I dragged the handbag and ran and she fell.”
He also said McCabe claimed he took the handbag from the woman while she was asleep.
In the witness box, he said he could not remember or be sure what was said, or by whom, and he was not paying attention as he was watching television at the time.
He added: “The words were put in my mouth.
“There were that many people talking. Different people were telling me different things.
“I didn’t want to make a statement but I was coerced into making one.”
McCabe, of Barrington Crescent, Thorntree, Middlesbrough, denies murder.
Proceeding
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