Murder trial told accused returned to chip shop with knife

A murder accused left a row at a chip shop near his home and returned minutes later with a knife, the Central Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

Donal Colgan (65), of Killarney Court, Killarney Street, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to murdering David Sheridan (39) outside Luigi's chip shop on the North Strand Road on August 17th-18th, 2014.

Opening the trial on Monday, Paul Burns SC, prosecuting, said Mr Sheridan met a friend on Summerhill Parade earlier on August 17th, bought drink at an off-licence and returned to Summerhill. Later they went to the chip shop on North Strand Road, taking the drink from the off-licence with them.

Mr Colgan and a number of other young people were already there. At some point Mr Colgan went outside and there was an “altercation”, but then Mr Colgan left the area.

When Mr Colgan returned some time later he was “carrying a knife which he used to stab David Sheridan a number of times”, Mr Burns said.

Mr Sheridan died the following day, and a postmortem showed that a number of stab wounds caused his death.

The trial continues before Justice Carmel Stewart and a jury.