A Dublin man killed another by piercing his heart with a knife during a fracas at a football pitch in Tallaght, a murder trial jury has been told.
Mr Michael Doyle (22), of Tonduff Close, Greenpark, Green hills, Tallaght, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Mr Mark O'Keeffe (20) on May 30th, 1997.
Mr Eamon Leahy SC, prosecuting, told the jury there had been a fracas involving a gang of youths, who attacked Mr Doyle with poles and a knife. Mr Doyle had fled the scene, but returned later with a number of long kitchen knives hidden in his clothing.
Counsel said that, according to a Garda statement allegedly made by the accused man, the gang of youths spotted Mr Doyle and yelled: "Grab him, grab him."
One man had approached Mr Doyle with his empty hands outstretched while a woman called out to Mr Doyle to run. Mr Doyle then allegedly pulled the knives from his clothing, brandishing them so that the oncoming man could see them, the court heard.
Mr Leahy said that Mr Doyle told gardai that he saw this oncoming man as a threat despite him not being armed. "I stabbed him then. He just kept coming and then I stabbed him", Mr Doyle allegedly told gardai.
Counsel told the court that the deceased man suffered severe injuries as a result of the stabbing, but the fatal strike was an injury which pierced the right ventricle of his heart.
It is alleged that Mr Doyle dropped the knives and ran from the scene shortly after the incident. Women in the vicinity were "screaming at me to run", his statement to gardai read.
The accused man later took a train to Belfast, a ferry to Glasgow and a train to London, Mr Leahy alleged.
Ms Jackie Deegan, a prosecution witness, told the court that Mr Doyle had been pinned to the ground by the deceased man and another man while Mr O'Keeffe punched him several times in the face. Mr Doyle escaped from his attackers and returned with a number of knives. At that point she heard him [Mr Doyle] say: "I'll kill him, I'll kill him."
During cross-examination by Mr Padraig Dwyer, defending, Ms Deegan told the court that she had been intimidated shortly after Mr O'Keeffe's death. She had been assaulted by an unidentified man and had moved to Wexford out of fear for her safety.
An anonymous telephone caller had told her that she was going to be killed, that she was a murderer. "I was going to be put six feet under the ground and I wouldn't live to see the court case", Ms Deegan said.
Mr Dwyer put it to the witness that, due to the intimidation she had experienced, she was reluctant to tell the court exactly what she saw because she was in fear. Ms Deegan responded: "I am in fear, yes. But I know I have to say what I saw."
She said the gang of youths had encouraged Mr O'Keeffe with taunts and jeers, "shouting get him or kill him or whatever", after the accused man returned to the scene of the fracas.
She said that Mr Doyle and Mr O'Keeffe faced each other for about two minutes, saying nothing, before the alleged attack occurred. "He kept stabbing him in the chest", Ms Deegan said.
If the gang of youths, who had stopped advancing on Mr Doyle, had caught him, "he wouldn't have had a hope", she added. "The guards would've been left scraping him off the ground if they had got him."
The trial, before Mr Justice Kearns and a jury, continues today.