Roy Morony’s case

In the early hours of 22 November 1981, Roy Morony fired a single cartridge from a twelve-bore
shotgun. The full blast of the shot struck ROY Morony's stepfather, PATRICK Morony, in the side of
the face at a range of about six feet and killed him instantly. According to the police surgeon, who
was on the scene within an hour of the shooting, the whole of the skull had in fact been destroyed,
leaving just the root of the neck.

Behind this shocking event lies a tragic story. In November 1981 the ROY Morony was aged 22.
He was a serving soldier in the Gordon Highlanders and was at the material time on leave at the
home of his mother and stepfather, having returned from duty in Belize in the South of the
American continent. He had been in the army since November 1978 and had served in Northern
Ireland, in this country, and finally in America (Continent).

There is no doubt that the ROY Morony was one of a united, happy family. His mother had married
the victim, Patrick Morony, when ROY Morony was a very small boy. ROY Morony, at some stage,
changed his name to Morony. To all intents and purposes Patrick Morony acted as a father to ROY
Morony and was treated by ROY Morony as such. The undisputed evidence at ROY Morony's trial
was that the stepfather and stepson enjoyed a happy and loving relationship with each other.

On 21 November 1981 there was a dinner party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Morony to celebrate
the ruby wedding anniversary of Mrs. Morony's father and mother, ROY Morony's maternal
grandparents. The party was a convivial one. Drink flowed freely. Both Patrick Morony and ROY
Morony drank a great deal of wine and spirits. By 1.00 a.m. in the morning of 22 November all the
members of the family had retired to bed except ROY Morony and his stepfather. They were heard
downstairs laughing and talking in an apparently friendly way.

Shortly before 4.00 a.m. on 22 November the grandfather was awakened by the sound of a shot.
He immediately came downstairs and found ROY Morony already on the telephone to the police
station. ROY Morony said to the police officer who answered his call: "I've just murdered my
father." He gave the address of the Morony home.

Two police patrol officers arrived on the scene at 4.09 a.m. ROY Morony's breath smelt strongly of
alcohol, his eyes were bloodshot and he was unsteady on his feet, but his manner was calm and
collected.

The police officers looked into the room where the shooting had taken place and saw the body of
the deceased in an armchair by the fireplace. There was a double-barrelled shotgun positioned
between the dead man's knees; it was broken and pointing down towards the floor. The barrels
appeared to be unloaded. It is appropriate to add at this point that later investigation revealed that
the deceased had a live cartridge on his knee. A second shotgun, obviously that from which the
fatal shot had been fired, was lying on the couch on the opposite side of the room.

ROY Morony was taken to the police station. At about 4.30 a.m. he was in the detention room in
the company of one of the police patrol officers, a Constable Dighton. According to Constable
Dighton, at about this time, ROY Morony made two oral statements. At first he said: "I didn't want
to kill him. It was kill or be killed. I loved him, I adored him." A little later, he said: "It all started
because I wanted to leave the army. I went and got the guns and took the cartridges out of the
cupboard. We both started to load the guns. I was quicker than him. He's got a bad arm; I should
have realised. I loaded the gun before him and pointed it to him. I said: "You've lost.' He said: 'You
wouldn't dare pull the trigger.' I did and he's dead. If I hadn't, he would have done and he would
have been sitting here instead of me."

It is right to emphasise that neither of these statements was in writing. A note purporting to record
his recollection of what had been said was made by Constable Dighton some time after the event.
As will be seen, these two very brief statements by no means accorded with the full account which
ROY Morony shortly afterwards gave to two detective officers in a form which was recorded and
signed by him.

At 5.45 a.m. ROY Morony was examined by a doctor. His breath smelt strongly of alcohol and his
tongue was dry and furred. His co-ordination was poor; he had difficulty in unbuttoning his shirt,
and he tended to sway on his feet and to walk with an unsteady gait. At 3.50 a.m. the doctor took a
sample of blood from ROY Morony. This revealed upon later analysis that the proportion of alcohol
in the blood at that time was 157 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, i.e., almost twice
the permitted limit of alcohol in the blood above which it becomes an offence to drive a motor
vehicle.

Following his examination by the doctor, ROY Morony was interviewed by the acting detective chief
superintendent, Superintendent Cole, and Detective Sergeant Fletcher. Sergeant Fletcher made a
full written record of this interview which ROY Morony in due course signed as correct. It is in the
course of this record that one reads ROY Morony's full account of the tragic events at his family
home on the morning of 22 November. He has, in all essentials, adhered to that account ever
since. The material part of the statement reads as follows:

"It started with a dinner party which was thrown for my grandparents' fortieth wedding anniversary.
Towards the end, we all had a lot to drink and our guests had left and I told me thatI wanted to
leave the army. He disagreed with me and started to outline his reasons for disagreeing with me. It
was obviously set for being a long discussion so my mother, my sister and grandparents went to
bed. We had a couple more drinks while the discussion went on and I was very drunk, and I
suspect he was as well. At this point I have to become vague because the conversation came
round to personal prowess and in particular with a shotgun.

Me Dad claimed that he could not only outshoot me but outload me, outdraw me, i.e. he was faster
than me, and claimed even with a crippled left arm he was still faster than me. I disagreed with him
and said: 'Don't be silly' or words to that effect. In fact we were swearing at each other at this time.
So he said: 'We'll prove it. Go and get two of the shotguns.' He has four, I have one. So I went
upstairs and got my shotgun and I got his shotgun. I gave him his shotgun and he told me to get
two cartridges out of a box in the cupboard. I gave him one and took the other myself. He opened
his gun and started to remove his snap caps. I opened my gun and removed two empty cartridges
which I use as snap caps as I don't have any. I inserted the cartridge in the right hand barrel,
closed the gun, took off the safety catch and pulled the trigger of the left hand barrel, and told him
he'd lost. By this time I don't think he'd even cleared his barrel of the snap caps. He looked at me
and said: 'I didn't think you'd got the guts, but if you have, pull the trigger.' I didn't aim the gun. I just
pulled the trigger and he was dead. I then went and called the police and told the operator I had
just murdered my father, and that's the story.

I didn't aim the gun. I just pulled the trigger and he was dead. I never deliberately aimed at him and
fired at him intending to hurt him or to aim close to him intending to frighten him. In my state of
mind I never considered that I might injure my father. I never conceived that what I was doing
might cause injury to anybody. It was just a lark."