A FRIEND of the killer of 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 the killer’s co-accused.
Pawel Kalite (28) and Marius Szwajkos (27) were stabbed with a screwdriver on February 23rd, 2008, outside their home on Benbulben Road, Drimnagh, Dublin.
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, has pleaded not guilty to the double murder.
The girl had at first denied that she rang Curran that evening after she and two other teenagers had a row with a Polish man. When documents from the mobile phone company were put to her, she admitted calling him to tell him 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 whether they mentioned having protection.
The group of five ended up outside the home of some Polish people further up the street.
“I saw a screwdriver,” she said. “Who had it?” asked John O’Kelly, 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 Curran.
She agreed with Giollaiosa Ó Lideadha, defending 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 trial continues before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and a jury.
Text messages: Exchanges on night of stabbings
THE COURT heard that the narrative of text messages between David Curran and his teenage friend changed at about 10.10pm on the night of the stabbings, 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,” 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. “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.
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 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 Giollaiosa Ó Lideadha, defending Curran, 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.
She also texted Curran to tell him to ring his co-accused Seán Keogh 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.