The tragedy of a mother, a son and an explosion ‘waiting to happen’

She was at home when she received a frantic call from her grandson. In garbled, confused speech she quickly realised something was seriously wrong.

She urged him to get help but it wasn’t until a few days later when an officer knocked on her door and confirmed the sad truth: Her daughter was dead and her grandson was charged with her murder.

Stephen Ball, 32, would later plead guilty to the unlawful killing of his mother Susanne Galvin, 55, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and his mental health issues would become a centrepoint for his trial at Bolton Crown court. Ultimately, jurors found him guilty of her murder.

READ MORE: Man guilty of murdering his mum after stamping on her head

At trial his grandmother, Mary Galvin, would reveal the devastating reality, and disturbing consequences, of her family’s troubles with mental health.

“As far as I was concerned, both Stephen and Susanne were mentally unstable,” she began.

Susanne Galvin had suffered for years, firstly with alcohol-related mental health issues and then dementia, her mum said. “She had no recollection of recent times, everything was back to 30 years ago,” she added.

Mary helped look after her two boys; Stephen and Michael. She would have them on and off over a number of years until being granted a residential order for them both by the family court.

They were a close family unit, though she noted that Michael ‘didn’t have a lot of time for his mum’. He kept a close eye on Stephen, though, providing support to him when he needed it.

Stephen was diagnosed with ADHD in his teens, though Susanne wouldn’t allow him to be medicated, she said. His mental health would continue to plague him. He would struggle to concentrate at school, instead focusing on more physical activities like running and boxing. Meanwhile, Susanne suffered with her own demons.

When Stephen reached the age of 18 he began taking drugs. Mary was aware and would tell him it ‘wasn’t good for his brain’, but he continued. At one stage he told her: “You know nan, when I take drugs, it makes me feel normal.”

Michael's sad death

It was 2016 when Mary moved back to her native Ireland, and the boys stayed in Manchester.

Stephen and Susanne had a complicated relationship - they had a fierce love for each other but would constantly argue. Michael would stay out of her way, instead remaining a steadfast older brother. Sadly, in 2018, Michael passed away.

Stephen struggled with the loss. His drug use and alcohol use increased. He kept in constant contact with his grandmother. They spoke everyday, and she would come back to the UK twice, sometimes three times a year.

However, his relationship with Susanne became more strained. Her health was deteriorating, and the pair would clash.

“They would argue between themselves,” Mary said. “She was very aggressive, she would scream and shout. He was erratic, he was taking drugs and drinking alcohol."

She said Stephen’s dad had been to the police out of concern for his son’s mental health. He had urged that he should be sectioned, but Stephen ‘passed the tests’ and mental health teams were happy for him to remain in the community, Mary said.

A week before Susanne’s death, Mary came over to visit them both.

“I spent a week with them,” she said. “They weren’t too bad but she had deteriorated quite a bit. She thought other people lived at the flat, in the loft. She had lumps on her head and said she had been mugged when she was in Bury.”

They went to visit Michael’s son before laying some flowers at his grave in Whitefield.

“The week I was over he was really good,” she added. Though, she said Stephen appeared unsettled because he wasn’t in a home of his own and, with Susanne’s health deteriorating, she thought this caused tension between them.

“The last I saw Stephen was when I was getting a taxi to the airport and it dropped him off in Bury outside Wilkos,” she said.

“He was upset about me leaving, we were in contact every day.”

The disturbing call Stephen made to his grandma

As the week went on, he admitted to having given his mother a ‘slap’ following a row. It was then on September 16 last year that he called his grandma with a disturbing revelation.

“He said she had broken the television and he was upset because I bought it,” Mary said.

“He called me and was saying: “I broke my mum’s wrist and I heard it snap’. I said ‘Has she been to hospital’ and he said ‘No she wants to go in the morning’.

“I said ‘check your mum and see how she is’ and said that she needed to get to hospital straight away. He shouted ‘mum’ a few times and there was no answer.

“He said ‘She won’t talk to me, she won’t answer me’. I said ‘OK, is she breathing’. He said yeah and I could hear a weird noise in the background like heavy breathing, erratic breathing.

“I said ‘You need to get her an ambulance right now and take her to hospital’. He said ‘if anything happens to my mum I will kill myself and I mean it’.”

She said that Stephen had claimed his mum had stolen his bank card whilst he was asleep and when he realised he ‘gave her a slap’.

“I just don't think he thought it was as serious as it was. Despite him saying he could hear her bone snap,” she told jurors.

She said she thought there was a ‘dawning realisation’ that something was wrong and that she wasn’t well.

“I never got a phone call back to say how she was doing so I thought there was no update and I thought ‘Thank God maybe everything is ok’. Then the Garda knocked on my door.”

'She had a tragic life but for it to end the way it did is a nightmare'

Michael Brady KC, representing Ball at his trial, asked: “You said to the police ‘This was an explosion waiting to happen’. What did you mean by that?”

The grandmother answered: “I don’t think he should have been released into his mother’s flat. It was only a one bed flat in her name.

“Her dementia and mental health was so bad and it was very hard to put up with it. She was just shouting and screaming all the time.”

Susanne was found with extensive bruising to her body, including 'patterning' to her face consistent with the sole of Ball's ASICS trainers, Bolton Crown Court heard. He was heard shouting 'thieving b****' and 'Mum, let me in' before neighbours called the emergency services.

A post mortem found a blunt force head injury was the cause of her death. Included in the report was reference to 'patterned bruising' on her face.

Speaking of her grandson’s care, Mary said he was ‘failed dreadfully’. When asked to elaborate, she said: “He has been failed by probation, prison and his mental health team. I don’t think he got the support he should have had.

“She was terribly frail, just skin and bone. Stephen was strong. They have been a major worry for years, especially since Michael passed away.

“She had a chaotic and tragic life but for it to end the way it did is a nightmare.”

Ball was found guilty of Susanne’s murder following a week-long trial. He will be sentenced next month.