Former HSE counsellor jailed for helping partner flee after murder of Lisa Thompson in 2022

A FORMER HSE addiction counsellor has been jailed for two years for acting as a get-away driver for the “violent and abusive thug” who murdered mother-of-two Lisa Thompson.

Sentencing judge Patrick McGrath said today that this was a “difficult case”, and there was no doubt Deirdre Arnold, 42, was subjected to appalling domestic abuse and considerable violence at the hands of Brian McHugh during the course of their relationship.

However, the judge found it could not be said that she didn’t have a choice in deciding what she did on the day in question.

Judge McGrath said he had to take into account that Arnold was under McHugh’s “dominion”, was the subject of abuse and was fearful of him.

The Central Criminal Court heard that Arnold, who in a “terrible twist of fate” became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine after meeting McHugh, had previously made domestic abuse complaints and got an interim barring order against him.

In March this year, Brian McHugh, 40, with a former address at Cairn Court, Poppintree, Ballymun in Dublin 11, was jailed for life for murdering 52-year-old Lisa Thompson.

McHugh was sentenced after a jury found he had inflicted 11 stab wounds to her chest and wrapped a blind cord around her neck.

In a separate trial last April, a jury agreed with the prosecution that Arnold was not an “innocent abroad” and had “decided at every turn” to assist her then-partner McHugh, whom she knew to have murdered mother-of-two Lisa Thompson.

The jury unanimously accepted the State’s case that Arnold impeded McHugh’s prosecution by driving him to Ms Thompson’s home at Sandyhill Gardens in Ballymun on 9 May 2022, where she waited outside for “well over an hour” before driving him away from the scene.

Arnold later checked McHugh into the Clayton Hotel near Dublin Airport in an effort to help him evade prosecution.

It was also the prosecution’s case that the defendant allowed her silver Hyundai Tucson to be used to dispose of evidence taken from Ms Thompson’s home.

Before delivering the sentence today, Judge McGrath said Arnold was in a very abusive relationship with McHugh, and there was no doubt he was particularly aggressive and violent to her on a number of occasions.

“To some extent she was under his dominion and became a user of heroin no doubt due to the appalling abuse he visited on her in the course of their relationship,” he added.

The judge went on to say the court had heard that McHugh had allegedly broken Arnold’s arm by holding it on the bottom of a stairway and stamping on it.

“One can only imagine the pain and terror Ms Arnold was suffering in the course of that relationship,” he said.

Judge McGrath said McHugh had also made threats against Arnold’s children and behaved in a “monstrous fashion” towards her in their relationship.

There was little doubt, he said, that Arnold was in fear of him and what might happen to her children at his hands.

Sentencing

Passing sentence today, Judge McGrath said he had been provided with a book of mitigation on behalf of the defendant.

Referring to a letter from Arnold, the judge said he accepted it was a genuine expression of remorse on her part, where she said she wished she had acted differently or recognised the warning signs from McHugh.

The judge said Arnold also outlined in her letter that she didn’t expect forgiveness but wanted the Thompson family to know she was truly sorry for their loss and would never forget the consequences of that day.

Judge McGrath pointed out that Arnold’s daughter had also written a letter to the court, where she called the defendant a devoted mother and said she was “the glue that holds the family together”.

Arnold’s daughter, he said, had asked for a second chance for her mother, whom she called a victim of domestic abuse, which she had tried to hide from their family.

The judge also mentioned a letter from Arnold’s mother, who said her daughter was under the control of the “monster” Brian McHugh and had feared for her life and the lives of her children.

He said a psychologist’s report had set out how Arnold was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and was in a number of “not ideal” relationships in the past.

The psychologist, he said, had included in his report how Arnold denied having any knowledge that McHugh was going to commit a murder prior to the event and denied having any knowledge of him committing the murder until the trial.

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Judge McGrath said he had some difficulty accepting this given the text messages exchanged between the couple.

Evidence was given in Arnold’s trial that text messages sent to McHugh’s phone from a number linked to the defendant on 18 and 19 June 2022 – over a month after Ms Thompson was found dead in her home – read “I could of been like Lisa today strangle n stab”.

Other text messages sent from Arnold to McHugh in June 2022 included her saying: “Murder Lisa n al” and “Move the knife did u” as well as “Ur runners n the knife”.

A senior investigating officer had told the jury that details of the ligature and strangulation of Ms Thompson had not been released into the public domain in June 2022.

The judge said today that Arnold had not fully come to terms with her role in this matter.

Again, he said, the psychologist spoke about the fear Arnold had for her children when McHugh threatened their lives with increased frequency and how she had complied with him to keep him away from her home.

The judge said Arnold had provided “a considerable degree of assistance” by her presence at Sandyhill Gardens, when she was the driver of the getaway car.

Other assistance included her and McHugh going to the Applegreen station and disposing of items taken from the deceased’s house.

The judge also said the defendant had also provided assistance when she and McHugh went to the Clayton Hotel in the aftermath and spent 36 hours with him.

The judge said Arnold’s prospects for future employment had been considerably reduced, with no chance of employment in any public sector job.

Arnold’s defence counsel, Patrick Gageby SC, told her sentence hearing last month that his client had since resigned from her State job and is the sole financial support for her three children.

The judge said Arnold has some insight into the matter and he had been told she would not be appealing the verdict.

He said were it established that Arnold had assisted knowing a murder was to take place the headline sentence would have been six years.

However, he said he would set the headline sentence at five years to take into account her barrister’s submission that the jury had not inevitably concluded that Arnold had been aware of the murder.

Referring to the two victim impact statements read to the court by the deceased’s sister Ashley Duckett, Judge McGrath said Ms Duckett had referred to the devastating impact which the loss of Ms Thompson has had on her life and had also noted the absence of any remorse from both defendants “as adding to their pain”.

Mitigation

The judge noted there was “significant mitigation” in the case including that Arnold was a middle-aged woman of good character, an excellent mother who provided fully for her children and was a hard worker.

“Whilst not fully accepting the part she played in the matter she has expressed remorse and I accept that’s genuine,” he added.

Having considered mitigation, the judge reduced the headline sentence of five years to three years.

He said the psychologist had recommended Arnold attend therapy to work on several issues and that a period of suspension on certain terms would be of use to her.

The judge sentenced Arnold to three years imprisonment with the final year suspended on both counts. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Arnold has one previous conviction from 2022 for attempting to drive under the influence of drugs.

She received a fine and was disqualified from driving for 18 months for this offence.

Evidence was heard at McHugh’s trial that Ms Thompson was dealing prescription drugs from her home, with gardaí who searched the house finding thousands of tablets worth nearly €50,000 hidden in the attic.

The trial was told that Ms Thompson and McHugh had a “bit of a fling” in the year before she died.

Deirdre Arnold, with an address at Briarfield Grove, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5 was charged that on a date between May 9 2022 and May 10 2022, both dates inclusive, at a location within the State, did without reasonable excuse an act with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of Brian McHugh, a person who had committed an arrestable offence, namely murder, whilst knowing or believing Brian McHugh to be guilty of the offence or of some other arrestable offence.

Arnold was also charged that on a date between 9 and 10 May 10 2022, both dates inclusive, at a location within the State, acted or embarked upon a course of conduct which had a tendency to and was intended to pervert the course of public justice.

She had pleaded not guilty to the two counts.