Gardai broke into Jasmine house after seeing her daughter, 8 at window

Accused was tackled at end of stand-off

- BY FIONA MAGENNIS

GARDAI forced entry to the house where Jasmine McMonagle had been killed after her daughter was seen at a window during a stand-off, the Central Criminal Court was told yesterday.

The court also heard that in the first Garda interview following his arrest, kill accused Richard Burke told investigating officers he "went ballistic" and started punching Ms McMonagle and strangling her with a rope.

Burke, 32, of Killygordon, Co Donegal, has pleaded not guilty to the murder at Forest Park, Killygordon on January 4, 2019, but guilty to manslaughter.

Burke told gardai he "went blank" when he started "punching the f**k out of" Ms McMonagle, the court heard.

The trial heard he told gardai: "I just put the rope round her neck, just pulled on it. I was standing holding the rope when the gardai knocked." Burke said he and Ms McMonagle had been fighting and he then discovered she had made a 999 call to gardai for help.

He said: "I have a real bad temper, I just blanked. I went ballistic, absolutely f***ing ballistic.

"Because I hate guards I just went ballistic, started punching the f**k out of her then strangling her with a rope. I was only trying to make her see sense." The jury were also told how a member of the force who attended the scene shortly after 5am went to the rear of the property.