Murder trial told told that Daniel McAnespie died a ‘painful death’

Daniel McAnaspie, the teenager who was in the care of the State when he was found dead three years ago, died as a result of multiple penetrating and perforating sharp force injuries to his upper body, a jury has heard. There were nine cuts on the hoody top, eight cuts on the jumper and 12 cuts on the jacket, the court heard.

Daniel (17) died a “painful death”, according to deputy State pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber.

Dr Jaber was giving evidence on day three of the trial at the Central Criminal Court of Trevor Noone (25) and Richard Dekker (27), both Whitestown Avenue, Blanchardstown, who have each pleaded not guilty to Daniel’s murder at Tolka Valley Park, Blanchardstown, on February 26th, 2010.

Dr Jaber told Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that the badly decomposed body was found in a shallow stream on farmland in Rathfeigh, Co Meath, three months after he had been stabbed.

After carrying out a postmortem, Dr Jaber concluded that the youth had died of multiple penetrating sharp-force trauma mainly on the trunk of his body. There was evidence of perforation of the internal organs such as the heart, lungs, stomach, said Dr Jaber.

He added that there was evidence of drugs, such as benzodiazepine and ephedrine, in the muscle tissue and the clothes he was wearing were badly decomposed.

On examination, it was clear to him that the body had been “dragged between fields and dumped in the final resting place in a shallow stream”.

Dr Jaber said he had been shown a photograph of half of a garden shears, which it is suspected may be the murder weapon, and he could state the wounds would be caused by such a knife-like blade as seen on the garden shears.

Dr David Casey of the Forensic Science Laboratory told the jury that on examining the decomposed clothing on the youth’s body, he could say up to 12 stab cuts had been inflicted. “There were nine stab cuts on the hoody top, eight stab cuts on the jumper and 12 stab cuts on the jacket,” he said.

He said he could not retrieve any DNA evidence from the half of a garden shears that had been found in the Tolka Valley river as it had been in the water for some time.

Mr Grehan told the jury it is the prosecution’s case that both men were involved in the stabbing of Daniel.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of seven men and five women.