The body of a Brazilian man beaten to death with a fence-post was still warm and covered in blood when gardaí arrived at the scene in a Kildare housing estate, a jury in the Central Criminal Court was told yesterday.
Garda John Shanahan told Orla Crowe BL, prosecuting, he found the body face-down in the middle of the road. "He was covered in blood. I had to lift the body up to see if he was still breathing, but he wasn't," he said.
He was giving evidence in the murder trial of three Brazilian men, Alessandro de Almeida Mata (30) and Jose Claudio Batista (30), both of Ruanbeg Close, Kildare, and Adriano Martins Costa (24), of no fixed abode, who all deny murdering Paulo Cesar Siqueria (39) at Ruanbeg Close, Kildare on June 4th, 2005.
Estate resident Neriga Daskueilkait said in evidence she was woken up by the noise of people shouting outside. She looked out her window and saw a person lying on the ground and three other people standing by, one of whom was kicking the victim.
She said a man used a wooden stick and "wouldn't stop hitting him with it". She told the jury another man then took the stick and continued beating him.
She added: "He didn't move, so I didn't understand why they were coming back with the stick. The man was really kicking him."
Under cross-examination by John Alymer SC, defending, Ms Daskueilkait said she was certain there were two people using the stake, even though it went against the evidence of other witnesses.
The trial before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of six men and six women continues on Monday.