A friend of a Dublin man accused of killing two Polish men came up with an alibi for him hours after he stabbed the mechanics in their heads.
The teenager, who cannot be named because of her age, was giving evidence by video link on the eighth day of the murder trial. The Central Criminal Court heard the content of several text messages sent between them that night, along with some messages sent between her and his co-accused.
Pawel Kalite (28) and Marius Szwajkos (27) were stabbed with a screwdriver on February 23, 2008 outside their home on Benbulben Road, Drimnagh.
David Curran (19) of Lissadel Green, Drimnagh has pleaded not guilty to their murder but guilty to their manslaughter. Seán Keogh (21) of Vincent Street West, Inchicore pleaded not guilty to the double murder.
At first, the girl denied that she rang David Curran that evening after she and two other teenagers had a row with a Polish man. However when documents from the mobile phone company were put to her, she admitted calling him to tell him that there had been in a fight.
“He said I’ll be over now,” she recalled, agreeing that there were four calls from her number to his in the 12 minutes between that fight and the killings.
She said that both defendants turned up 10 minutes later.
“I seen David and Seán running up the road and saying someone was after ringing him, telling him his Dad had been stabbed,” she recalled, denying that she had been the one to tell him this.
“They said they had something but I didn’t know what they had,” she said when asked if they mentioned having protection.
The group of five ended up outside the home of some Polish people further up the street.
“I saw a screw driver,” she said.
“Who had it?” asked John O’Kelly SC, prosecuting.
“David,” she replied. “In his hand.” She said two Polish men were struck and fell to the ground.
“Who struck the first man?” she was asked.
“David,” she replied, explaining that she didn’t see who struck the second man.
She said that Seán Keogh was standing outside the garden, while she and the other two teenagers were across the road.
The court heard that at one stage later that night there were two texts every minute between the girl and David Curran.
She agreed with Giollaiosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending David Curran, that his client wanted there to be a record of texts between them that gave the impression that they hadn’t a care in the world and had nothing to do with the killings.
The narrative of the messages changed at about 10.10pm when she texted him: “Ha I just reading what it says on the news. Ha. Shit xxxx.” He replied: “Ha ha. You’re mad.” “Ha ha but like I can’t believe it… Mad night xxxxx,” she wrote back.
“F**k it. Delete message. Get a new number tomorrow xxx,” David Curran replied.
“If they ask you for your phone number xx,” he wrote when she asked him why.
“Ah f**k it xx,” he texted her later.
“Ah Schilaci being all moany. I saved your life,” she wrote later, using his nickname.
“Ah yeah I lv ya,” he wrote back. She explained that this mean he loved her.
The messages between them continued with a different slant after midnight.
“Did you hear about that in Drimnagh? It’s going around I done it cos I got stabbed the other night,” he texted at 12.13am.
“No way, is it?” she replied.
“Yeah. F***in weirdos. Wasn’t in Drimnagh all day,” he replied.
“Yeah I know ha ha. I have a plan but not going to text it,” she wrote back.
Another text was recovered from the draft folder in the girl’s phone, which was saved at 12.16am.
“Do you know what I was thinking we could say, that you and me was only in (****’s) babysitting cos you and me are the only ones who don’t have an alibi,” she wrote, telling him about their friends’ alibis.
She agreed with Mr O Lideadha that this was about setting up a defence.
“He was just trying to get the two of us out of it,” she told the jury.
The girl also confirmed a number of texts sent between her and Seán Keogh that night.
“Ring me,” he wrote at 10.48pm.
“No prob. The man meant to be dead,” he later texted her.
“Tell David Curran to ring me quick,” he wrote.
“He has no credit. What’s wrong?” she replied.
There were a number of other similar messages between Mr Keogh and the girl.
She also texted David Curran to tell him to ring his co-accused quickly but he replied that he couldn’t.
“That’s on teletext about other thing. We’re f***ed,” Mr Keogh texted her later.
“I know yeah,” she replied.
“I had to help my mate. I burned my new runners and all xx,” he wrote.
“No way,” she replied.
“Swear to God. We’re f***ed,” he replied.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and a jury of eight women and four men.