AN EYEWITNESS in the case of a father of six who was fatally stabbed in front of his wife and children has told the Central Criminal Court she saw two men “beating and jabbing” him while blood ran out of him “like a river.”
Amanda Maguire (25), a friend and next-door neighbour of Christopher Cawley, said she heard him pleading with his attackers to stop, saying “leave me alone, me kids”, but they kept beating him.
The witness told the jury she recognised one of the men as Warren Dumbrell, but did not know the second assailant.
Mr Cawley (33) died after being stabbed six times in the stairwell of the flat complex where he lived at Tyrone Place, Inchicore, Dublin, in October 2006.
Brothers Warren (36) and Jeffrey Dumbrell (30), both of Emmet Place, Inchicore, are on trial for the murder.
They have pleaded not guilty.
Ms Maguire said she had been watching television with her mother and boyfriend on the evening of October 29th, 2006, at her flat in Tyrone Place, when she heard screaming outside.
She ran out to the second floor balcony and saw Janet Cawley waving a stick and screaming, “get away from him, get away from him”. Ms Maguire looked over the balcony and saw Ms Cawley’s daughter, and then saw Mr Cawley slumped on the ground, half in and half out of the stairwell.
She also saw his five-year-old son on the stairs. There were two men on top of Mr Cawley, she said, one beating him with what looked like a hurley and the other was on top of him.
“It looked like he was jabbing him, but I couldn’t see anything in his hand. Christy was making noises and asking them to leave him alone. He said, ‘leave me alone, me kids’, ” she said.
Ms Maguire said she shouted that Mr Cawley was being stabbed. “The only reason I knew that is because I saw a colossal amount of blood, it was coming out of him like a river.”
Neighbours tried to give the victim mouth to mouth “but it wasn’t doing any good”. Paramedics also tried to resuscitate him when they arrived.
Michael O’Higgins SC, defending Warren Dumbrell, asked Ms Maguire if it would be a more accurate description to say one of the men had been pounding Mr Cawley rather than jabbing him. “It all happened very quickly,” she replied.
The case continues today