A man on trial for murder in the Central Criminal Court yesterday looked across the courtroom and told the victim's mother: "I never killed your son." Giving evidence in the witness box, he appealed directly to the mother of the murdered man and said: "I tell you, Mrs Dwyer, I never touched your son. I look directly into your eyes. I never set it up. I never killed your son. That's the truth to God."
Mr Joseph Delaney (53), formerly of La Rochelle, Naas, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to the charge that he, with his son, Scott Delaney, then aged 22, murdered Mark Dwyer (23) on or about December 14th, 1996, within the State.
Mr Delaney has also denied that on December 14th, 1996, at Foster Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin, he falsely imprisoned Mark Dwyer against his will.
Mr Delaney told the court that on the night of the murder three men in "ballys" (balaclavas) entered his home in Co Kildare, carrying Dwyer, who had been tied up and had a covering over his head.
He said that the men told him they planned only to "question" Dwyer about 40,000 ecstasy tablets which had been stolen. Mr Delaney, a self-confessed drugdealer, had feared for his own safety when the three men arrived with Mark Dwyer, saying that he had not asked anyone to bring Dwyer back and that he "started thinking it was a set-up".
The jury heard that Mr Delaney had organised a shipment of drugs from Amsterdam which was stolen en route. At one stage he had suspected Dwyer of being responsible for the theft.
Mr Delaney said that later there had been several attempts on his life by gunmen and that those responsible for the theft might have wanted to "tidy up loose ends" by having him murdered.
Insisting that he had nothing to do with the murder, Mr Delaney said that when the men left his home Dwyer was alive and the men had told him they would leave him at his mother's house in Fairview.
Mr Delaney alleged in court that when he was arrested after the murder two gardai had beaten him for two hours in an attempt to get him to sign a prepared statement.
Pointing out Det Garda Francis Sweeney in the courtroom, Mr Delaney further alleged that an officer had attempted to gouge out his eye, plant drugs on his clothing during a strip search and give him blows to the sides of the head.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Barr and a jury.