McAnaspie accused murder wore stab vest, court told

ONE of the two men accused of the murder of teenager Daniel McAnaspie wore a stab vest on the night of the stabbing as he "was always getting into stab fights," a jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Trevor Noone, who initially denied any involvement in the murder but later told gardai he had seen Richard Dekker stab Daniel to death with half a garden sheers, said he had bought Dekker a stab vest prior to the stabbing.

“He was wearing the stab vest under his suit that night,” Noone told gardai. “I bought him the vest because he was always getting into stab fights.”

Mr Noone had also admitted to gardai he helped move Daniel’s body from TolkaValley Park and forced it into a suitcase before placing it into a car driven by another man. Daniel’s badly decomposed body was found in a ditch in Co Meath three months later.

Mr Noone (25) and Dekker Dekker (27), both of Whitestown Avenue in Blanchardstown, who have each pleaded not guilty to the murder of Daniel McAnaspie, who was in the care of the State at the time of his death, at Tolka Valley Park, Blanchardstown on February 26th, 2010.

Prosecuting counsel Brendan Grehan BL, read out interviews take by gardai in November 2010. It was day six of the trial.

Mr Noone claimed Dekker had “control” over him and had bullied him since he was a child – locking him in a garden shed and burning him with hot candle wax and hitting him for no reason.

“He found it amusing as he liked to see me in pain,” Mr Noone said.

The court heard of Mr Dekker’s sadistic past when he placed a cat into a tumble drier and randomly stabbed a disabled person.

Mr Noone also told gardai he was under the impression Mr Dekker was only going to give Daniel “a couple of slaps” and not stab him to death – following a row when Daniel had said something to Mr Noone about his uncle.

“I hit Daniel after he said something about my uncle but I realised he was too young. I said sorry and shook hands and he said he was alright,” Mr Noone admitted to gardai.

He said after this row, Dekker had “legged it somewhere” and saw him on the roof of his garden shed with “a pole or something.”

He claims he met Mr Dekker about three days after the stabbing to discuss what to do with the body and he became paranoid something was going to happen to him too as “Dekker was sitting on a chair, drinking beer, with an axe beside him.”

He said Mr Dekker’s eyes were “red from crying.”

He told gardai Mr Dekker “was the one who did everything” and that he was just going along with it as Mr Dekker had a lot of control over him.

“If I wasn’t afraid of Dekker, Daniel would probably be still alive,” Nooneadmitted to gardai.

He said Mr Dekker once told him that he was his best friend and that Dekkerwould “kill for him.”

“I was more of a yes man than a friend,” Mr Noone said.

He also told gardai that prior to the plan of placing the body of Daniel into a suitcase, another man had suggested to the pair that the body “should be cut up and put into bags.”

The trial will go into legal argument for the day tomorrow and will resume in evidence on Friday morning before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of seven men and five women.