00:00
This episode contains mentions of coercive control and domestic violence.
00:04
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this podcast, help is available.
00:10
Contact Women's Aid on 1-800-341-900.
00:16
This episode also contains references to suicide and suicidal ideation.
00:21
If you need help, please reach out to the Samaritans on 116123.
00:32
The switchboard at Sligo Garda Station's communication room lights up.
00:37
It's just after 9.30pm on Sunday, September the 18th, 1988, and the person on the phone is frantic.
00:44
Gunfire has been heard in the car park of the local hospital, Sligo General.
00:49
Another call comes through. In the background, there is shouting, crying, confusion.
00:56
Two people have been shot.
00:59
Inspector Jim Sheridan closes his eyes.
01:02
He's fled in a white Ford Fiesta, the caller says, possibly heading for Donegal along the N15.
01:10
How had it come to this?
01:26
Thank you.
01:34
When someone is killed in Ireland, the Gardaí call in a specialist unit of forensic crime scene examiners from the Technical Bureau.
01:42
This is Ireland's real-life version of CSI, but it's nothing like the movies or TV shows.
01:48
For 25 years, I was one of the detectives on that team.
01:52
My name is John Sweetman. My job as a guarded detective in the technical bureau was to read the evidence that could not speak for itself.
02:01
I learned to see what others might miss. Fingerprints smudged on the handle of a door. Weapons disguised in everyday objects. Handwritten notes that revealed more than the writer ever intended.
02:13
The smallest traces often unravelled the big story.
02:17
And now I'm here to tell you those stories.
02:20
In this podcast from Go Loud, I take you inside some of Ireland's most haunting investigations.
02:27
This is Lines of Inquiry, a Go Loud original podcast that follows the evidence step by step and tries to uncover the real story behind the headlines.
02:37
In this episode, a mother and daughter terrorised in their own home and two terrible attacks at a Sligo hospital within only months of each other.
02:55
Each school day morning in 1988, 18-year-old Anne Gillespie walked across the five-arched stone bridge spanning the River Finn between the county Donegal towns of Ballybuffet and Strannerlar.
03:09
Ahead of her, she would see St. Columba's College.
03:13
As Anne approached, her school would already be coming to life, with students spilling through its gates and gathering in noisy clusters before the first bell.
03:22
St. Columbus was a large mixed school with more than a thousand pupils, but everyone seemed to know Anne, if not by name, then as the girl with the bright red hair.
03:33
Though naturally shy, she was well-liked and had a close-knit circle of friends she had known for years.
03:40
Her teachers often joked that Anne and her friends would be the last to settle down in class, and once they did, would spend most of the lesson whispering and laughing.
03:50
Most lunchtimes they spent in a local café, Pat's Pantry, eating plates of chips or tea and scones and chatting to anyone and everyone who passed through the door.
04:02
In the twin towns of Ballybuffet and Stranalar, everyone tended to know everyone, whose child was whose, who'd married in, who'd moved away for work and come home again.
04:13
It was the kind of place where a favour was always repaid and where trouble, when it came, was borne by the whole community.
04:21
There had been plenty of that recently.
04:24
That spring, the shockwaves from a tragedy in neighbouring Sligo travelled quickly across the north-west.
04:30
There had been a murder, a shooting, and it had left a deep mark on the area.
04:37
On the 1st of May 1988, 20-year-old student nurse Sarah Tarpey from Kiltimach, County Mayo, was on duty at Sligo General Hospital.
04:47
She and Cahill McManus, a 20-year-old apprentice fitter employed at the hospital, had met through work and had been in a relationship for some time.
04:56
But six weeks earlier, after returning from a holiday in the Canary Islands, Sarah had ended the relationship.
05:04
In the early hours of that Sunday morning, following a dance in Sligo, McManus called to the house Sarah shared with three other student nurses on Circular Road.
05:14
It was after 3am when he knocked on the door demanding to speak with her.
05:19
Although surprised by the visit, Sarah eventually agreed to meet him in the sitting room.
05:25
The pair talked for almost two hours from 3am until 5am, discussing the end of their relationship.
05:33
Afterwards, McManus left without incident.
05:37
Sarah's housemates would later recall that she seemed unconcerned by the encounter and had never spoken of being afraid of him.
05:45
They described her as kind and considerate towards her former boyfriend, even after the relationship ended.
05:52
Yet friends had noticed subtle changes in McManus in the weeks since the break-up.
05:57
Once regarded as shy, friendly and easygoing, he had become increasingly withdrawn and distant.
06:06
Shortly after lunch the next day, Sarah and another student nurse were walking back towards the ear, nose and throat department when they encountered McManus in a hospital corridor, busy with staff, patients and visitors.
06:19
As they passed each other, he called Sarah's name.
06:23
When she turned, he produced a sawn-off shotgun and fired at point-blank range, striking her in the chest.
06:33
The blast sent doctors, nurses and patients scrambling for cover, but instead of attacking them, McManus calmly walked away from the scene and entered a nearby storeroom.
06:45
Moments later, a second shot rang out.
06:51
Hospital staff who rushed to investigate found that he had used a weapon to take his own life.
07:00
Investigators would later conclude that the attack had been planned long in advance.
07:05
McManus had taken his father's legally held shotgun from the family home in Keydew, County Roscommon, shortened the barrels and brought it to the hospital.
07:15
His visit to Sarah's house in the early hours of the morning appeared, in retrospect, to have been a final attempt to repair a relationship whose aunt he could not accept.
07:26
The killings stunned the hospital and the wider region.
07:29
McManus had worked at Sligo General for three years and was widely regarded as a quiet, level-headed young man. Popular in the local community and an active member of his GAA club, Friends and colleagues struggled to comprehend how a relationship between two young co-workers had ended in such devastating violence.
07:51
For weeks afterwards, the story dominated conversations in kitchens, pubs and shop doorways across the North West.
07:58
In communities stretching from Sligo to Mayo and Donegal, people spoke of little else, trying to make sense of a tragedy that seemed impossible to understand.
08:09
It was the sort of thing people believed happened somewhere else until it happened close to home.
08:15
But as all of that swirled around her and tainted the atmosphere of her hometown, 18-year-old Anne Gillespie's world remained centred on simpler things.
08:25
Home, school, and above all, her mother, the 51-year-old Annie.
08:32
Anne and Annie, the two were inseparable and could often be seen walking through town arm in arm.
08:39
More than mother and daughter, they were best friends.
08:43
They shopped together, attended mass together and cycled out to visit Anne's grandmother or spend an afternoon along the wild Donegal coast.
08:52
They were an unusual family in Ballybuffet, with it just being the two of them.
08:58
Annie's first husband died when she was still young.
09:01
Years later, after rebuilding her life, her second husband, Anne's father, suffered a fatal heart attack less than a year after their marriage, when Anne was only three months old.
09:12
But Annie was one of eleven siblings, and the wider family rallied around them.
09:19
Annie was very house-proud. Her daughter's friends often said it looked like a doll's house.
09:24
Always spick and span, with the rooms decorated by crocheted doilies and little vases.
09:31
The idea of missing Sunday Mass simply wouldn't have occurred to her.
09:35
She took no interest in politics, didn't like to miss watching Sunday night's episode of Glenrow on RTE television, and she occasionally went to bingo at the Isaac Butt Hall in Ballybuffet.
09:47
Most of all, she seemed to live for Anne.
09:50
By the time her daughter reached adulthood, she had been raised not only by her mother, but by an entire community, and her home at the edge of Ballybuffet was often filled with visitors.
10:03
One of their most frequent visitors was Anne's boyfriend, John.
10:08
Anne had fallen for him after meeting him at a local disco three and a half years earlier.
10:13
She was fourteen years old and he was eighteen.
10:17
He lived twenty minutes away in Lifford, just across the county from Bally Buffet, but he already had his driving licence and it wasn't long before he was collecting Anne from school in the evenings.
10:28
Like most teenagers at the time, they spent their free hours at dances and discos in village halls across Donegal or over the border in Oma.
10:38
When they weren't out together, John was usually at the Gillespie house.
10:42
He rarely wanted to spend an evening apart from Anne.
10:47
Although Annie and Anne had always been perfectly content on their own, John's arrival was a welcome one.
10:53
He drove them to Mass, helped with jobs around the house, and tackled the kind of tasks Annie could never quite get around to, fixing shelves, hanging wallpaper, and carrying out odd repairs.
11:06
As the relationship settled into routine, Annie gradually relaxed the rules.
11:12
John was allowed to stay the night, just so long as Anne remained in her own room, without John.
11:18
By the second year of their relationship, he had been given his own key to the front door.
11:23
For the first time since Anne was a little girl, a man had become part of their daily lives, sleeping under the same roof and sharing the routines that had long belonged only to her and her mother.
11:38
By the summer of 1988, Anne had passed her leaving cert and started to think seriously about what came next.
11:46
Unsure of the career she wanted, she enrolled on a secretarial course while picking up extra money through part-time jobs in a local shop and waitressing at weddings.
11:56
More and more, she spoke about America.
11:59
Like many young Irish people of her generation, she dreamed of getting a green card and trying her look abroad.
12:07
For the first time, the future she imagined stretched far beyond the familiar streets of Ballybuffet and Stranolaire.
12:15
As Anne's horizons widened, subtle changes began to appear in her relationship with John Gallagher.
12:22
Anne loved music and dancing and could spend hours in her bedroom listening to records, everything from The Cure to Kylie Minogue.
12:30
In July 1988, John travelled to Cork for a Michael Jackson concert with a group of friends that included several other girls.
12:39
Anne was hurt by the decision.
12:42
She felt there was one set of rules for him and another for her.
12:46
She knew that if the roles had been reversed and she had announced plans to travel away with a group of male friends, John would almost certainly have been furious.
12:57
The couple argued about it. It was not the disagreement itself that stood out, but Anne's response.
13:04
Friends and family had rarely seen her challenge John before.
13:08
Now she did, and once she began, something shifted.
13:13
Anne was no longer the 14-year-old girl who had fallen for him three and a half years earlier.
13:19
People noticed that she was becoming more independent, more confident, and increasingly excited by possibilities that lay beyond Donegal.
13:28
When she spoke about the future, John was not always part of the picture.
13:35
Those around them noticed the change.
13:38
John, however, seemed oblivious to any change.
13:42
He spoke of them getting married and told people that he had the best-looking girl in Donegal signed up.
13:50
He talked about building a house behind Annie's home for him and Anne to live in.
13:55
Everyone who heard his plans just went along with it, afraid to disagree and knowing that John had a quick temper.
14:02
But some family members, especially Anne's uncle, felt he was starting to rule their lives.
14:09
Some of Anne's friends felt the same.
14:12
They had noticed how John would sit in his car outside the shop where Anne worked for her entire shift.
14:19
Her mother Annie had her own reservations.
14:22
She began to admit to family she had been uneasy about the relationship for a while, but she wanted to let Anne make her own decisions.
14:31
Family and friends welcomed Anne's talk of wanting a looser relationship and time on her own.
14:38
Anne felt ready to end it, but she just didn't know how.
14:47
The episode you're listening to is brought to you by Butternut Box. If you've been thinking about switching up your dog's meals, this is your sign.
14:56
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15:30
Thanks again to our partners, Butternut Box. Now back to the podcast.
15:37
On the evening of Saturday, 10th of September, 1988, Jackson's Hotel in Bally Buffet was filled with wedding guests.
15:45
Friends, neighbours and extended family gathered inside to celebrate, while outside the dark waters of the River Finn slipped quietly past a hotel.
15:56
Annie and Anne had come with John, along with several neighbours from Bally Buffet.
16:01
Anne was enjoying herself. She moved easily from table to table, chatting with relatives and neighbours she'd known all her life.
16:09
Annie was in good form too, laughing with friends and watching the celebrations unfold.
16:16
John was drunk and soured the mood by telling Annie that she had put two husbands in the grave.
16:23
As the band struck up another song, a young neighbour approached Anne and asked if she'd like to dance.
16:30
They had grown up in the same area and known each other since childhood.
16:34
Anne agreed and followed him onto the floor.
16:38
But across the room, John watched.
16:41
He had noticed them together.
16:44
At first he stayed seated. He sat and he watched.
16:48
Then, as the song continued, he stood.
16:52
He moved to the edge of the dance floor.
16:54
His expression hardened.
16:57
Arms folded, he stared at the pair as they danced.
17:01
As soon as the music stopped, John grabbed Anne by the wrist and steered her towards the exit.
17:08
Later that night, as people began to leave the hotel, John was sitting in his car.
17:14
He was waiting for the young neighbour who danced with Anne.
17:18
When the young man stepped from the hotel, John confronted him.
17:22
Tempers flared and the exchange quickly became violent.
17:27
John had armed himself with a steak knife from the hotel kitchen and threatened the young man with the blade.
17:34
People nearby had to step in to protect the young man John went for Annie was shocked by what she was seeing, and she pleaded with John to stop.
17:44
During the altercation, it was John who ended up injured, suffering a cut to his arm from his own knife.
17:52
He returned to the car with Anne, bleeding and still furious.
17:57
But the evening was far from over.
18:01
Back at the Gillespie home, John's rage only intensified.
18:05
Anne tried to calm him, but he was beyond reason.
18:09
He accused her of humiliating him, of embarrassing him in front of everyone at the wedding.
18:15
The row escalated.
18:17
Anne told John she never wanted to see him again.
18:21
He shoved Anne against a wall with such force that her watch shattered.
18:26
Then he took out the knife again, reopened the wound on his arm and smeared blood across her face, hair and clothes.
18:35
He warned her that this was what she would look like if she ever looked at another man again.
18:41
Then he drove away.
18:47
and spent the night in shock.
18:49
Hours earlier they had been guests at a wedding.
18:52
Now she sat covered in his blood, listening to him veer between rage and self-pity.
19:00
The next morning Anne attended Sunday Mass in Ballybuffet with her mother.
19:05
The church was filled with parishioners arriving for worship, many of them unaware of the ordeal Anne had endured just hours earlier.
19:14
After Mass ended and people began filing through the church gates, Anne and her mother confronted Gallagher outside.
19:22
You were a disgrace, they told him, as Gallagher apologised for his behaviour and begged for forgiveness.
19:29
He insisted that it wasn't his fault. It was the alcohol, he said, that made him act the way he did.
19:36
When Anne said she would not take him back, he told her he would drive to a friary and take the pledge.
19:42
Still she refused.
19:45
Then, when Anne tried to end the conversation by saying she needed to visit her grandmother, who had recently broken her hip, John offered to drive her there himself.
19:55
Reluctantly, Anne agreed.
19:57
At that point it felt easier to say yes than to argue any more.
20:03
But instead of heading towards Anne's grandmother's house, John turned the car in the opposite direction and sped towards Barnesmore Gap and Donegal Town.
20:13
Driving erratically down the winding country roads, he accelerated to more than 160 kilometres an hour and steered directly towards an oncoming lorry, forcing it to swerve off the road.
20:27
John eventually pulled over and another furious confrontation erupted.
20:33
John then tried to choke Anne right there in the car.
20:37
He said it doesn't do to cross a fellow.
20:42
Anne lost consciousness and when she came to she briefly thought she had died.
20:48
Still John was not satisfied. He told her he would either kill them both or kill himself if she refused to promise that they would get back together.
20:58
Anne agreed. She felt she had no other choice.
21:03
John then turned the car around and headed back towards Anne's grandmother's.
21:08
Just before they got there, they noticed two of her young cousins walking down the lane.
21:15
John swerved towards them and ran them off the road.
21:18
They flung themselves into a ditch to save their lives.
21:22
He pulled over again, telling her he knew she wasn't serious about getting back together.
21:28
I won't be made a fool of, he said.
21:36
Over the next three days, John repeatedly called to Anne's house.
21:41
He begged her to take him back and bought her a new watch to replace the one he had broken.
21:47
John Gallagher was still trying to hold on to the life he imagined they would share, but Anne was already planning her escape.
22:01
On Thursday, 15th September, five days after the wedding, Anne and Annie got up and prepared for the day ahead.
22:10
Annie planned to visit her mother, who had by then been moved to Sligo General Hospital.
22:15
She was uneasy about leaving Anne alone in the house.
22:19
John still had a key.
22:22
As far as they knew, he could walk through the front door any time.
22:27
Anne was due to begin a secretarial course at her former school, St. Columbus, and mother and daughter decided she should speak to her old yearhead, Greta Harrison, and seek advice about how to deal with John.
22:41
Greta had taught Anne all through her time at St. Columbus, and despite being only a few years older than her students, she acted as a mammy to them, bonding over her extracurricular activities and school excursions.
22:54
That morning, Greta was having a cup of tea before what promised to be a hectic day of teaching and covering classes, when another teacher approached and told her that a former student was outside, asking to see her.
23:07
It was Anne.
23:08
She told her teacher that she was in big trouble.
23:12
She asked Greta if they could talk, really talk.
23:17
Greta hesitated. Her day was already packed and she wasn't sure she could spare the time.
23:23
But when she saw Anne's expression and the disappointment that flashed across her face at the possibility of being turned away, she changed her mind.
23:32
Whatever this was, it was important.
23:36
Greta assumed that Anne was pregnant.
23:40
In 1988 Catholic Ireland, a pregnancy outside of marriage would have carried with it a heavy social stigma, especially for Anne and Annie Gillespie who never missed Sunday Mass.
23:51
But Anne's problem was something else entirely.
23:55
Miss, she asked quietly, what would you say to me if I told you my boyfriend was going to kill me?
24:03
Anne then began to explain.
24:06
She described how John had never been denied anything he wanted, how he struggled to accept rejection, and how he had gradually come to dominate her life.
24:15
He became jealous when she spent time with friends and expected her attention to revolve around him.
24:22
She told Greta about what had happened at the wedding and in the days that followed.
24:27
The knife, the blood, the terrifying drive, the choking.
24:33
Anne was frightened.
24:34
She believed John was capable of killing her.
24:38
More than that, she believed she knew exactly how it could end.
24:43
Just months earlier, the North West had been horrified by the murder of student nurse Sarah Tarpey at Sligo General Hospital.
24:51
Anne told Greta she feared she would end up the same way.
24:55
Greta listened carefully before asking the obvious question.
25:00
Does John have access to a gun?
25:03
Anne didn't hesitate.
25:05
Oh yeah, she replied.
25:09
Greta struggled to absorb everything Anne had told her.
25:13
Apart from a handful of close friends, she was one of the very few people who knew the full extent of what had been happening.
25:20
Even her mother Annie didn't know all the details.
25:24
Believing John's parents might be able to intervene, Greta suggested that Anne call them.
25:30
She gave her a few coins for the payphone in the school corridor and stepped away to give her some privacy.
25:37
When Anne eventually returned, there was little hope in her voice.
25:41
John's mother had been sympathetic, she said, but his father seemed concerned only with the fact that Anne wanted to end the relationship.
25:50
As far as Anne could tell, the Gallaghers were unwilling or unable to confront their son.
25:56
They were not going to solve the problem for her.
26:01
The call had left her badly shaken. She stood twisting the silver cross around her neck and dragging it anxiously across her lower lip.
26:10
Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke.
26:13
More than anything, she was frightened that John would discover she had contacted his parents.
26:20
Greta went to the staff room and made her a cup of tea.
26:23
Watching Anne sit there, visibly trembling, she was overcome by a dreadful feeling.
26:29
The young woman in front of her genuinely believed she was in danger, and for the first time Greta found herself wondering if she might be right.
26:38
She asked Anne to take a few minutes and think carefully about what she was saying.
26:43
To claim that someone intended to kill you was no small thing.
26:48
When Greta returned Anne's answer hadn't changed.
26:52
She looked at her teacher and said Miss if I'm not given some form of protection by next week you'll be singing at my funeral.
27:03
Her teacher suggested Anne should go stay somewhere else somewhere safe.
27:07
She even considered having her stay with her but Anne worried about her mum.
27:12
After all John still had a key.
27:17
police protection seemed the only solution. In 1988, Ireland had not yet introduced a law specifically covering persistent harassment.
27:27
This didn't come in until the introduction of the 1997 Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
27:34
It would take a further 25 years or so before stalking would be recognised as a standalone criminal offence in 2023.
27:43
Even if she went to the guards, there was little protection available to Anne.
27:48
And there was no blueprint for what Anne was experiencing.
27:52
Without modern concepts like criminal stalking or coercive control, the people around her, the school, her mother Annie, friends and relatives, viewed John Gallagher's frantic behaviour not as an escalating criminal threat, but as the agonising, volatile fallout of a bitter teenage breakup.
28:11
In a tightly knit community like the Twin Towns, there was a deeply ingrained social instinct to keep such domestic matters private rather than involving the police.
28:22
But Greta was not local to Ballybuffet, and thought that to ensure the report to the Gardaí was taken seriously, and not brushed off as teenage melodramatics, the school principal should be involved.
28:35
She suggested this to Anne, who was reluctant to tell any more people.
28:40
She was upset and ashamed, but eventually she agreed, and so the principal of St. Columbus, a nun, was informed.
28:50
Greta had to go back to her class. She told Anne she would see her tomorrow and left her and the principal together.
28:58
It was decided that the best thing to do was for the principal to drive Anne to her neighbour's home, where she'd stay until her mum came home from Sligo Hospital.
29:06
Then they would call the Gardaí and go from there.
29:10
However, when the sister dropped Anne off, the neighbour wasn't home, forcing Anne to return home alone.
29:19
Within minutes John had let himself into Anne's house with his own key.
29:25
Forty minutes later Seamus Duffy, a man working in a garage across the road, heard screams coming from the front of Anne's house.
29:35
Seamus looked over. He saw a white Ford Fiesta. The passenger door was open.
29:41
Hanging out of the front seat was Anne.
29:44
Her head and body were outside on the ground.
29:47
It looked like someone was in the car trying to pull her in by her feet.
29:51
She was screaming, trying to get away.
29:55
Seamus could tell this was no ordinary row between a young couple.
29:59
He watched as Anne fought for her life.
30:03
Seamus ran over, grabbed Anne by her shoulders and yelled at the driver, John Gallagher, to let her go.
30:10
He released Anne's legs and sped off.
30:16
Seamus took Anne back over the road to the garage and she sat with a woman working in the office.
30:22
Anne shook as sobs racked through her body.
30:26
She combed her fingers through her long red hair again and again.
30:31
The woman sitting with her thought she looked very young, younger even than her eighteen years.
30:37
She pulled Anne into a hug and told her things would be all right.
30:43
But Anne said, no, he'll kill me.
30:46
Even if I move away from here, he'll come after me and find me.
30:51
The two sat together in the garage as the woman tried to comfort Anne.
30:56
Within an hour John's sister had arrived at the garage.
31:00
She came into the office and tried to persuade Anne to talk with John.
31:05
He hadn't gone far she said.
31:07
He was at his grandmother's nearby.
31:10
She suggested Anne call over to talk things through.
31:14
Anne said no.
31:16
Then the phone in the office rang.
31:19
When they answered, it was John's father asking the exact same thing.
31:24
Again, Anne refused.
31:27
The phone kept ringing.
31:29
It was John's mother this time.
31:32
Anne stood her ground.
31:34
She didn't want to speak with John.
31:37
She didn't even want to see him.
31:41
Not much later, the white Ford Fiesta pulled up outside the garage.
31:46
John Gallagher sat behind the wheel, the engine idling at first, before he began revving it hard.
31:53
The sudden roar shattered the ordinary sounds of the workshop.
31:57
Through the large glass windows at the front of the building, he had a clear view inside.
32:03
But Anne remained in the office.
32:06
John pressed his foot down on the accelerator and the car lurched forward.
32:11
The Fiesta gathered speed as it crossed the forecourt, heading directly towards the showroom windows.
32:18
For a split second, it looked as though he was going to drive straight through them.
32:23
Then, at the last possible moment, he slammed on the brakes.
32:27
The car jolted to a halt, its nose only yards from the glass.
32:33
Moments later, he did it again.
32:36
The engine screamed as he accelerated towards the building before braking suddenly. Then a third time.
32:43
Each charge towards the window seemed designed to force a reaction, to draw Anne outside.
32:50
She never came.
32:52
Eventually, John switched off the engine and climbed out.
32:56
If anything, he appeared surprisingly calm.
33:00
He walked across the forecourt and into the garage as though he had every right to be there.
33:05
Anne was still sitting in the office with the same woman.
33:09
John entered and ordered the woman to leave.
33:12
Intimidated by his manner and uncertain what might happen, she did as she was told and stepped outside.
33:19
A short time later, John's sister followed him into the office.
33:24
From where she stood, the woman couldn't make out everything that was being said.
33:29
What she did hear was Anne's voice, over and over again. No, no, no.
33:36
Her words carried through the office door and into the workshop.
33:40
Anne pleaded with John to return the key to her house.
33:44
She told him to leave it behind and to take a look at himself.
33:48
The conversation grew increasingly heated though much of it remained out of earshot of the listening woman.
33:55
Before long the owner of the garage arrived.
33:58
Taking in the situation immediately he ordered John and his sister to leave the premises.
34:04
Reluctantly they went.
34:08
Annie returned from visiting her mother at the hospital in Sligo to a chaotic scene.
34:13
She and Anne were taken in by a neighbour.
34:16
Finally removed from the imminent threat of John Gallagher, Anne began to settle.
34:22
She started to tell them about the evening's events.
34:26
After John had let himself into her house earlier that afternoon, Anne had tried again to end things with him.
34:32
He told her that would never happen.
34:35
I told him I needed a break and he told me he would never give me one, Anne said.
34:41
Anne then confided in them that after their conversation John had followed her into the sitting room.
34:47
She was sitting on the sofa when John knelt in front of her.
34:51
John told her he was going to have sex with her.
34:55
Anne said no and began to cry.
34:58
When Anne refused him, John then raped her.
35:03
At the urging of her mother and neighbour, Anne agreed to go to the local doctor where she was given the morning-after pill.
35:10
When they returned, they stayed in the neighbour's house, knowing that John had a key to their own home.
35:17
Inside the house, there was a lot of discussion about what to do next.
35:22
Annie and her neighbour pleaded with Anne to go to the Gardaí.
35:27
Outside, John's car could be heard revving again and again, Anne refused to go to the guards while John was still around.
35:37
Anne's relatives approached John, begging him to go home, and eventually he left.
35:44
Only then did Anne and Annie return home.
35:48
They locked the door behind them and locked internal doors to keep John out.
35:54
Near midnight, a Garda sergeant who lived close by came to Anne instead.
36:00
Anne's principal, the same nun who had brought her home from school, sat with her in support as she signed a formal statement detailing everything else that had happened that week.
36:10
The wedding and John's extreme reaction to her dancing with a neighbour.
36:14
His refusal to accept that Anne wanted a break.
36:17
His erratic driving that nearly sent them into the path of an oncoming lorry.
36:22
The choking. The threats. The rape earlier that day.
36:27
Anne held nothing back.
36:33
Twenty minutes away, in Lifford, John Gallagher had returned home.
36:37
The breakup had consumed him.
36:40
He paced through the house, weeping one moment and raging the next, unable to speak about anything except Anne.
36:49
His family tried to calm him, but every conversation circled back to the same obsession.
36:55
He demanded to know where she was and what she was doing, who she was with.
37:00
His mother gave him valiant tablets in the hope that they might settle him.
37:05
They didn't.
37:07
Concerned for his welfare, a doctor was called.
37:10
Gardee were summoned too.
37:13
By the time the officers arrived, they found a family struggling to contain a young man who appeared to be spiralling.
37:20
To them, it looked like the aftermath of a devastating breakup and an evening of escalating emotional turmoil.
37:28
What they didn't know was how serious it really was.
37:32
They didn't know about the criminal events that had already unfolded a few miles away in Ballybuffet.
37:38
But John knew.
37:41
The moment he saw the guardie arrive, he bolted.
37:45
He disappeared into the darkness, setting off a frantic pursuit through the streets of Lifford.
37:51
Officers followed on foot and by car, eventually catching up with him near Lifford Bridge.
37:57
There John stopped.
38:00
Across the River Foyle lay Strabane and Northern Ireland, just a short distance away but a different jurisdiction entirely.
38:09
But instead of crossing, he climbed onto the bridge and stood above the black water below.
38:15
Gardie watched anxiously as he threatened to jump.
38:19
What they saw was a distraught young man talking about ending his life, and they were determined to prevent it.
38:27
For more than an hour, they negotiated with him.
38:31
John eventually presented them with a condition.
38:34
He wanted to see Anne.
38:37
More specifically, he wanted to be driven to her house so that he could speak to her face to face.
38:43
The officers tried to persuade him otherwise.
38:46
John wouldn't budge.
38:50
The standoff dragged on into the night.
38:53
Faced with what they believed was an immediate risk of suicide and desperate to bring the situation to a peaceful conclusion, the Gardaí made a decision.
39:03
They agreed to his demands.
39:12
At the house in Ballybuffet, Anne and Annie spent the evening giving statements to Gardaí.
39:19
The events of the day had left everyone exhausted.
39:22
The attempted abduction, the panic, the uncertainty over where John might be or what he might do next, had stretched nerves to breaking point.
39:33
Eventually, at around two o'clock in the morning, the sergeant finished his interview and left.
39:39
For the first time all day, the house felt quiet.
39:44
The quiet didn't last.
39:47
A knock came at the front door.
39:50
Annie answered, accompanied by her brother Patrick.
39:54
Standing outside was a Garda from Lifford.
39:57
He explained that John had been found and that he wanted a word with Anne.
40:02
The request immediately alarmed her.
40:05
The very idea that he could still be demanding to see her after everything that had happened was unsettling.
40:12
Reluctantly, the family stepped outside.
40:16
A patrol car was parked on the road.
40:19
At first glance, nothing seemed unusual.
40:22
Then they looked through the windscreen.
40:25
Sitting behind the wheel was John Gallagher.
40:28
Just hours earlier, Anne had reported him to Garda for threatening and attacking her. Now he was sitting in the driver's seat of a Garda car outside her home.
40:39
The journey to Bally Buffet was one John knew by heart after more than three years of travelling to see Anne.
40:45
Normally it took somewhere between twenty minutes and half an hour.
40:49
That night, he covered the distance much faster.
40:53
Once behind the wheel, he drove erratically at speeds exceeding 150 kilometres per hour, with Gardie beside him as they attempted to keep the situation under control.
41:05
Anne refused to speak to him. She had made her wishes clear repeatedly, and they hadn't changed.
41:12
When the Garda returned to the car and relayed her answer, John erupted in fury.
41:18
His shouting could be heard from outside the vehicle as officers turned the car around and headed back towards Lifford.
41:26
The ordeal was not over.
41:31
After being brought home, John fled once more, making his way back to Lifford Bridge.
41:38
By that stage, Gardie had become increasingly concerned that they could neither calm him nor ensure the safety of those around him.
41:47
Together with his family, they concluded that he required emergency psychiatric intervention.
41:53
By five o'clock on the morning of Friday, 16th of September, John's parents were standing at the gates of St. Conall's Psychiatric Hospital in Letterkenny, where their son had been admitted as a voluntary patient.
42:06
Upon admission, John told relatives he wasn't a jealous person. He just couldn't handle the thought of her going out with other men.
42:16
Meanwhile, the rape allegation had caught up with him.
42:20
Gardie and Ballybuffet arranged for John's clothing to be retained for forensic examination as part of their investigation.
42:28
Back in Ballybuffet, nobody had slept.
42:32
Later that morning, a Garda sergeant and another officer from Letterkenny visited the Gillespie home.
42:39
They informed Anne that John had been admitted to St. Connells.
42:44
For the first time in days, she felt a sense of relief.
42:48
The officers then explained that if she wished to pursue her complaint of rape, she would need to undergo a medical examination.
42:56
The prospect terrified her.
42:59
Anne knew how such cases were discussed in small communities.
43:03
She dreaded the possibility of strangers gossiping about her, of seeing her name in court reports or newspaper headlines.
43:11
More than anything, she wanted the ordeal to end.
43:15
With John now under psychiatric care, she convinced herself that the immediate danger had passed.
43:22
She decided to withdraw the complaint.
43:25
Following procedure, Gardie informed the Gallagher family that Anne no longer wished to proceed.
43:32
The clothing that had been retained for forensic testing was no longer required.
43:38
Not everyone thought the decision was wise.
43:42
Later that day Anne spoke with a local Garda sergeant whom she knew personally.
43:47
He urged her to reconsider and reinstate the complaint.
43:52
She refused. Instead she asked a different question.
43:56
How long would John be in hospital?
43:59
Would somebody tell her before he was released?
44:02
the sergeant promised to make inquiries with St. Connell's after the weekend.
44:07
The assumption, shared by many involved, was that John would remain there for some time.
44:13
They were wrong.
44:15
John's father had also been in touch with St. Cornels.
44:19
He had phoned the hospital to speak to the doctor in charge and was told John seemed to be all right.
44:26
He was told that if John insisted on coming out, he would be released.
44:30
After all, this was a voluntary admission.
44:33
They couldn't make him stay.
44:36
At 7.45pm that evening, less than 15 hours after arriving, John Gallagher walked out of St. Conall's Psychiatric Hospital, accompanied by his father and sister.
44:48
Anne was shopping in Bally Buffet when word reached her that John had been released.
44:54
Abandoning her purchases, she rushed from the shop and headed home.
44:59
Around the same time, one of Anne's relatives spotted Gallagher driving in the direction of the Gillespie house while on the way to Mass.
45:07
Alarmed, they contacted Gardie.
45:10
But without an active complaint against him, there was little officers could do.
45:15
However unsettling his behaviour appeared, simply driving through Ballybuffet was not a crime.
45:22
Shortly afterwards, Gallagher arrived at the house.
45:26
He drove repeatedly up and down Anne's road before eventually pulling up outside.
45:32
Anne telephoned the local sergeant.
45:36
The officer called to the property and delivered a firm unofficial warning.
45:41
Gallagher left, but he didn't disappear.
45:45
Throughout the evening, he continued trying to force his way back into Anne's life.
45:51
He phoned one of her uncles twice, hoping family members could persuade Anne to speak with him.
45:57
He visited other Gillespie relatives, some of whom knew little about the frightening events of the previous days, repeatedly seeking sympathy and support.
46:07
Late that night, he contacted a priest for advice about recording a message for Anne.
46:14
The result was a cassette tape.
46:21
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47:10
By now, the Gillespie's had spent days looking over their shoulders.
47:15
Every unfamiliar car prompted concern.
47:18
Every knock at the door raised anxiety.
47:22
Even when Gallagher was not visible, they felt his presence lingering at the edge of their lives.
47:28
On Sunday morning, Gallagher picked up an unsuspecting relative of Anne's and talked him into passing along the love tape to her while Gallagher waited in the car, watching the house.
47:40
She pressed play to hear, I have a prayer in my hand to St. Jude, St. Jude for hopeless cases.
47:48
Please, Anne, just for friends' sake, even a phone call.
47:54
While the Gillespie's had spent the Saturday night in fear, John Gallagher went to the disco.
48:00
He spoke about it on the tape, telling Anne how he had looked around at the other couples there and started thinking of her.
48:07
The tape went on. ''I care about you like a father. I wouldn't do nothing to you.
48:15
Please give me a break.
48:17
Oh God, Anne have pity.'' The relative came back out, telling him he'd have to accept that she wanted nothing to do with him.
48:29
Gallaher dropped him home.
48:32
Yet even then, the family couldn't shake the feeling that the situation was far from over.
48:38
Gallaher had spent the previous days appearing without warning, telephoning relatives, calling to houses and searching for Anne wherever he thought she might be.
48:49
Nobody knew where he would turn up next.
48:53
Later that day, Anne and her mother travelled to visit Anne's grandmother at Sligo General Hospital.
48:59
They deliberately chose not to go alone.
49:03
Anne's uncle Patrick joined them, along with two aunts and three younger cousins.
49:08
Nobody said it outright, but everyone understood why they were travelling together.
49:14
The family knew Gallagher had been in Bally Buffet looking for Anne that very afternoon.
49:20
They knew he had repeatedly ignored her requests to leave her alone.
49:24
After everything that had happened, there was comfort in staying close to one another.
49:30
Even when Gallagher was nowhere to be seen, there remained an uneasy feeling that he was still out there, somewhere, still searching, still unwilling to let go.
49:40
Standing on a rise overlooking the town, the sprawling concrete complex of Sligo General Hospital was a world away from the familiar roads and fields of East Donegal.
49:51
The family made their way down the long, sterile corridors to the orthopedic ward to visit Anne's 79-year-old grandmother, who was recovering from a broken hip.
50:02
For a few hours they sat by her bedside, chatting and helping to pass yet another long evening on the ward.
50:10
Then, shortly before 9.30pm, when visiting hours came to an end, they said their goodbyes to their grandmother and headed back to the car, preparing for the drive home.
50:22
The family crossed the dimly lit car park of Sligo General, preparing to squeeze into the car for the journey home to Ballybuffet.
50:31
Anne and Annie climbed into the back seat while Patrick's wife, her children and one of Annie's sisters followed behind.
50:38
Patrick was halfway into the driver's seat when a white Ford Fiesta XR2 screeched to a halt behind them, boxing the car in.
50:49
For a moment, nobody dared to move.
50:53
Then the driver's door opened.
50:56
Even in the weak glow of the car park lights, there was no mistaking the man who stepped out.
51:02
In his hands was a .22 semi-automatic rifle.
51:08
Screaming, Patrick's wife and the children turned and ran back towards the hospital.
51:13
The gunman advanced towards the car, holding the rifle at hip height.
51:19
His right hand rested on the trigger and his left gripped the barrel.
51:25
The rifle was pointed directly at them.
51:40
The End
51:56
Thank you for listening to this episode of Lines of Inquiry.
52:00
Anne and Annie Gillespie's story will be told over two episodes, with the second half being released next week.
52:07
If you're listening on Spotify, you can also leave a comment on this episode.
52:35
We read every comment and we're genuinely grateful for the time you take to share your thoughts.
52:40
You can get in touch with us directly by emailing linesofinquiry at goloudnow.com if you have a question or a case you'd like us to cover. We'd love to hear from you.
52:51
Follow us on Instagram at linesofinquirypodcast and if you can, share the podcast with others.
52:59
Lines of Inquiry is presented by me, John Sweetman. The podcast is created by Darren Cleary. Our executive producer is Owen Brennan. Senior producer is Siobhan Walsh. Producer is Sam Hobson.
53:12
This episode was written by Anna Priestland and edited by Siobhan Walsh, Sam Hobson and Owen Brennan.
53:19
Sound design and editing by Neil Kavanagh. With legal, marketing and social media support from the team at Goloud.
53:27
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this episode, please reach out for help. We have included contact details for Women's Aid and Samaritans in the episode description.
53:52
Join me next time as we conclude this case and follow the evidence wherever it leads.
54:00
Because, in the end, everything done in the dark comes to light.
