Murder accused repeatedly dropped sofa on man’s head and chest, prosecutor says

A jury will hear how a 51-year-old man suffered serious head and chest injuries when a sofa was repeatedly dropped on him as he lay defenceless on the floor of a house in west Co Cork, a murder trial has heard.

Prosecution counsel Seán Gillane SC told the jury of seven men and five women empanelled for the trial of Andrew Nash (43) that alcohol played a significant part in the case. Mr Nash denies the murder of John Ustic at High Street, Skibbereen, Co Cork between September 24th and 25th, 2017.

Mr Ustic, a native of Cornwall, had been living in a rented house on High Street in Skibbereen for several months before his death. He had previously lived in Bantry and Drimoleague in Co Cork as well as in Co Tipperary for a period after moving to Ireland from the UK in 2005.

Outlining the State’s case against Mr Nash, of Parnell Street, Thurles, at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, Mr Gillane said the jury would hear that Mr Ustic was in a relationship with Suzanne Fenton, the mother of the accused.

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He said they would hear evidence that Mr Nash was with his friends Thomas Fitchett and Nicola Colgan in Cork on the afternoon of September 24th, 2017, when he received a phone call from his mother and he asked Mr Fitchett and Ms Colgan to drive him to Skibbereen.

He said they would hear evidence that Mr Ustic and Ms Fenton were upstairs at the house in High Street and that Mr Nash went upstairs and hit Mr Ustic a number of blows, injuring his cheek, but that all parties came downstairs and things settled down between them.

He said that they would hear that Mr Nash, Mr Fitchett and Ms Colgan left the house at around 6.30pm with Mr Ustic and went to Lidl, where they bought alcohol before going to Lough Hyne, where Mr Fitchett and Ms Colgan played in the water.

They returned to Skibbereen at 7.40pm when Mr Nash, Mr Fitchett and Ms Colgan got out of the car in a car park near Skibbereen Garda station. Mr Nash aggressively pulled Mr Ustic, who was very intoxicated, from the car, causing him to hit his head on the ground, and then left him lying there.

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A number of passersby saw Mr Ustic lying in the car park and tried to go into the Garda station, which was closed at the time. Mr Nash and Mr Fitchett returned and picked up Mr Ustic under his arms and dragged him back to the house.

A number of people left the house at various stages that evening, including Mr Nash, who left for a short period at 8.30pm. When he returned, tensions rose and he began attacking Mr Ustic, who had at this stage consumed a large quantity of alcohol, said Mr Gillane.

“You will hear that Mr Nash attacked John Ustic while on the ground. He rained blows down on him, stamped on his face and he slashed his ear with a broken bottle. Mr Ustic was literally defenceless, and ultimately lifting up a sofa, he [Mr Nash] brought it down repeatedly on his head and chest.”

The jury would hear that Mr Nash and Mr Fitchett left the house later that night and drove to Dunmanway, where they were involved in a road traffic collision with another car. Ms Fenton, who has since died, raised the alarm when she found Mr Ustic unresponsive the next morning.

The jury would hear that Mr Ustic was pronounced dead at the scene and a postmortem by then State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy revealed he had died from blunt force trauma to the head, neck and chest with acute alcohol intoxication being a contributory factor, said Mr Gillane.

He said that gardaí arrested Mr Nash in November 2017 and he admitted hitting Mr Ustic “a few slaps but denied causing the injuries which led to his death”.

The case, which is continuing before Mr Justice Michael MacGrath at the Anglesea Street Courthouse in Cork, is expected to last three weeks.