PATRICK MARRINAN
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Patrick Marrinan was born Belfast in 1954 into a well known legal family. Having studied Law at Trinity College Dublin and at Queens University Belfast he was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1977, where, during the height of the troubles, he cut his teeth in some of the major terrorist trials heard before the Diplock Courts. He moved to Dublin in the eighties and became a Senior Counsel in 2000. During his 30 years of practice he has been involved in over sixty murder cases and is widely regarded as one of the leading criminal advocates in the country. He also served on the Bar Council for many years and was a member of a government committee which examined the feasibility of introducing a public defender system into Ireland. In 2002 he was nominated to represent the Irish Police Force at the Morris Tribunal, a major public inquiry investigating alleged police corruption. Patrick Marrinan's first novel, SCAPEGOAT, was published by Robert Hale Ltd. In 2009. He is married with two daughters and lives in Dublin. He is working on a new crime novel based on a real case. |
DEGREES OF GUILT Perfectly normal people have, without motive, taken the lives of those they love when the conscious mind rests during sleep and the subconscious takes control. Somnambulism or sleepwalking as it is more commonly known has been incriminated as the culprit in over forty homicide cases worldwide. Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction and these cases prove this truism. This is the story of one such case and the trial of a young Russian man accused of the apparently motiveless killing of his mother. Anna Komarova, an elderly Russian immigrant, is found by the police stabbed to death in her Dublin flat. Her mentally retarded son Yuri is discovered asleep in the adjoining bedroom with the blood stained murder weapon lying on the floor beside his bed. All the circumstantial evidence clearly points to his guilt. Yuri, who doesn’t speak English, is questioned by the police with the assistance of Marina Petrovskaya, a young Russian interpreter. A somewhat quirky character, she survives on her wits in the shady world of illegal immigrants. Blair Armstrong, once the most outstanding criminal lawyer in Ireland, returns from early retirement to conduct the defence. Blair had become immersed in melancholy following his wife’s death and begun drinking heavily. When asked to take on this unusual case he sees an opportunity to face his demons and restore his reputation. It is a decision he begins to regret when he falls in love with the beautiful Russian interpreter. The story follows the case from crime scene to verdict with a unique insight into the plight of a mentally retarded immigrant caught up in the niceties of the criminal justice system. But it is also a cleverly plotted story of love and deceit, of breach of trust and manipulation. In a world where Justice should be the Holy Grail, truth is notable only by its absence and nothing is as it seems. Rights available: World ex. English UK, Ireland & Commonwealth (Robert Hale Ltd.) |
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