A Dublin man has gone on trial in the Central Criminal Court for cutting the throat of an older man in Inchicore four years ago.
Mr John Cleary (24), of St Mark's Avenue, Clondalkin, Dublin, has denied the murder of Mr Kenneth Foley, (45), at Jamestown Court in Inchicore.
Mr Foley, a single man with an address at Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, was found dead on the steps of the Jamestown Court flat complex in the early hours of January 15th, 1999.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC told the jury: "It will not be an issue that this was an unlawful killing. There's no issue but that he [John Cleary] killed Ken Foley. The issue that you will have to decide is whether he is guilty of murder or guilty of manslaughter."
He said a post-mortem showed that Ken Mr Foley's death was "due to a cut throat injury which severed a major blood vessel of the neck, the jugular vein". He also had multiple knife wounds to the head and neck and other body injuries from having been kicked and beaten.
In a statement to gardaí after he was arrested, Mr John Cleary said he and a friend had joined another man drinking with Mr Ken Foley in a first-floor flat in Jamestown Court on the evening of January 14th 1999.
Mr Cleary said that when he was leaving, he offered to walk Mr Ken Foley home, but Mr Foley "started saying he wouldn't go home with me because I'd probably rob him of his £2.50 [pounds]."
He said Mr Foley called him a "scumbag" and a "robber". He hit Mr Foley in the face and head and then went to the toilet to calm down. When he got back, "he was still giving it loads", Mr Cleary said. He said he then went to the kitchen and got a small black-handled knife.
Mr Ken Foley "kept giving me stick", he said. When he left the flat he waited outside for Mr Ken Foley and he began hitting him when he came out. His friend emerged from the flat and joined in.
Mr Cleary admitted that during the attack, he swung the knife at Mr Foley. While he was doing that, his friend was still kicking Mr Foley, he said.
When Ken Foley was on the ground, "I stood over him and I ran the knife over his throat", Mr Cleary told gardaí.
The prosecution counsel said the jury would hear that Mr John Cleary was arrested when Detective Inspector Declan Coburn (now a superintendent) called to his parents' home in St Mark's Avenue, Clondalkin the day after Mr Ken Foley's body was found.
Mr Cleary's parents were "very co-operative" and his father brought gardaí to his daughter's house in Greenfort Crescent, Clondalkin, where they found Mr John Cleary lying on the sitting room couch.
When he saw the gardaí, Cleary asked could he go to the toilet upstairs.
In a subsequent search of the same toilet, D.I. Coburn found a gold signet ring with the name 'Ken' on it. In a second search, he found a gold watch at the back of the toilet.
The prosecution counsel said that in his statement to gardaí, although he admitted the killing, Mr John Cleary told gardai he did not know why he did it.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins.