A YOUNG disabled man was found dead with stab wounds in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, last year, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday. Ms Maureen Clark SC said it was the State's case that Mr Alan Rooney stabbed Mr David Hammond after telling two other men he was going to kill or "do damage" to someone.
There was no bad blood between the two men, who lived in the same estate, and Mr Rooney appeared to have lunged at Mr Hammond and caused his death "for no reason", she said.
Immediately after the stabbing Mr Hammond was in a fight with another man who punched him twice on the face and left him on the ground, she said.
Ms Clark was opening the trial of Mr Alan Rooney (28), of Curran Park, Balbriggan, who pleads not guilty to the murder of Mr David Hammond (24), also of Curran Park, at Pump Lane, Balbriggan, on April 27th, 1996.
Mr Hammond had gone out on the night of April 26th last year. He had a few drinks and became truculent. Words were exchanged with another man, not the defendant, and they were pulled apart.
That night Mr Rooney was walking down a street in Balbriggan when he was asked for a cigarette by two young men. He had given them a cigarette and the men would say that Mr Rooney, showed them a knife or a blade, she said. One would say Mr Rooney said he was going to kill someone, while the other would say the defendant had said he was going to do damage to someone.
At that point Mr Hammond came along and he and the man he had been squaring up to earlier were shouting at each other.
She said the two men who got the cigarette from Mr Rooney would say that the defendant went over to Mr Hammond, who pushed him away. They would say Mr Hammond was shaping up to have a fight with the other man, and Mr Rooney had nothing to do with that row.
The two men would say Mr Rooney went up to Mr Hammond, there was an exchange of words and Mr Rooney lunged at Mr Hammond. One man would say he saw Mr Rooney stab Mr Hammond. Mr Hammond went over then to fight the other man. In the course of that Mr Hammond was brought to the ground and was punched twice.
Help was sought and gardai and an ambulance arrived. Mr Hammond was pronounced dead at 1.33 am.
She said Mr Rooney heard the next day that Mr Hammond was dead. She said Mr Rooney went to his doctor's surgery and asked her to call the police. The trial continues today.