One of the accused in the Brian Murphy manslaughter trial told his girlfriend two weeks after the 18-year-old died outside the Burlington Hotel that he kicked him once in the chest when he was lying on the ground, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
Ms Elizabeth O'Mahoney, who was a neighbour of Brian Murphy and the sister of his best friend, said Mr Seán Mackey told her he kicked him. He said this when she was in the house of her friend, Ms Mella Kennedy, over two weeks after the death.
The witness said she was in Club Anabel on the night and she met up with Mr Mackey, who was her boyfriend at the time. Her brother gave herself, Ms Mella Kennedy and another friend, Mr Simon Barrett, a lift home at the end of the night.
When she got home, she noticed that she had received a text message from Mr Mackey, sent at 1.30 a.m., and she rang him but his phone didn't answer. She phoned Mr David Cooney's phone because she remembered the two were together outside the hotel when she went home.
Ms O'Mahoney told the court: "We argued for about 40 minutes because I had seen him arguing with another girl. I then heard an ambulance in the background and Seán said he had been in a fight and received a punch to the back of the head." The witness said she was angry and told Mr Mackey to come back to her house, which he did in a taxi at about 4 a.m. She asked him who he had been in a fight with and he said "some guy in a red shirt".
Mr Mackey said that person was "slagging off Andrew Frame" and he went in to break it up and got hit on the back of the head. Ms O'Mahoney said her brother phoned the house at about 5.30 a.m. and she remembered her mother coming to the top of the stairs crying. She told them that Brian Murphy was dead.
She said her parents went straight to the hospital. Then it hit her that Brian Murphy was wearing a red shirt. She asked Mr Mackey about this and he said he pushed him to the ground but he got back up and he had no more involvement.
Ms O'Mahoney added: "I do remember talking to Seán in my friend Mella's house about two weeks after that night, and he told me he had kicked Brian once in the chest. He said Brian was lying on the ground at the time."
Mr Andrew Frame (22), from Nutley Lane, Donnybrook, Mr Seán Mackey (23), from South Park, Foxrock, Mr Desmond Ryan (22), from Cunningham Road, Dalkey (all Co Dublin), and Mr Dermot Laide (22), from Rossvale, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, have pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 18-year-old Mr Murphy at Sussex Road on August 31st, 2000.
The four former Blackrock College students also deny committing violent disorder by using, or threatening to use, unlawful violence on the same date.
Another witness, Ms Jenny Hyland, who knew Brian Murphy since she was in first year, said she saw a crowd of about 15 men outside the front gate all throwing punches at each other.
In the middle of the group, she saw Mr Murphy fall to the ground and a group of about six people kicking him all over the body. She said that when the kicking stopped, two people carried him across the road because he couldn't support himself and he was appeared to be quite heavy. The witness said she heard someone say: "I started all of this." This person was wearing a beige fleece with a navy trim around the collar.
When she was shown the top that Mr Mackey was wearing on the night, she said it appeared to be very similar. Ms Hyland told Mr John Edwards SC, for Mr Laide, in cross-examination, that the person who said "I started all of this" appeared to be bragging about it.
Another two girls, Ms Orla Healy and Ms Maeve Kenny, both said they saw about 15 men who appeared to be involved in an argument. Brian Murphy was in the middle of it, and he suddenly fell to the ground. They both didn't see the faces of those who were kicking Mr Murphy, but Ms Kenny said she saw Mr Mackey throw a punch and hit Mr Murphy in the head before he fell. He then came over to talk to someone on the phone.
She also told Mr Anthony Sammon SC, for Mr Mackey, that she thinks his client was standing next to her on the phone when Brian Murphy was being kicked but she wasn't sure about that.