An unnamed man told an off-duty Garda his girl friend's brother carried out a killing, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Giving evidence for the prosecution, Det Garda Ian Lambe, then of Kevin Street Garda station, told the court that a day after Liam Thompson had been stabbed to death in a street brawl near Dolphin's Barn, he met a man who claimed to know the identity of the killer.
Mr Gerald Dunne (26), of Drimnagh, has denied the charge that on January 27th, 1999, at Dolphin's Road, Dublin, he murdered Liam Thompson (20) of Tallaght.
Det Garda Lambe told the court he was off duty and returning home in the early hours of the morning of January 29th, 1999, when he met a man in the street on the Crumlin Road. The man approached him and said: "All guards are scum. I recognise you, you are a copper from the Barn," the court heard.
Det Garda Lambe added: "He told me that he witnessed that stabbing that occurred in Rialto on the previous night, that it was over a row in a phone box, that it was a butter knife that was used in the stabbing and that it was his girlfriend's brother that carried out the stabbing."
The trial continues today.