A MURDER trial witness denied being directly implicated in the murder of a 23-year-old man who was suspected of murdering a drugs dealer and stealing 40,000 ecstasy tablets, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Defence counsel Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC put it to the witness, Mr Christopher Curry, that he had been directly implicated in the abduction and murder of Mark Dwyer and had told the defendant this.
Responding to the accusations, Mr Curry asked why he would murder a man after telling the defendant he was going to do so.
Dublin was a small town to be "putting it out you're a gangster. Before long the gardai know and they are on to you," he said.
Mr Curry said he wanted to make money but would not be prepared to murder a man "for £5,000 or £50,000."
Mr Joseph Delaney (54), formerly of La Rochelle, Naas, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mark Dwyer (23), on or about December 14th, 1996.
He has also pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr Dwyer and detaining him against his will at Foster Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin, on December 14th, 1996.
The prosecution alleges Mr Delaney murdered Mark Dwyer over the theft of 30,000-40,000 ecstasy tablets.
The accusation that Mr Curry had told the defendant he received £5,000 for the murder of Mark Dwyer was made in a statement made by the accused and read to the court by his defence counsel, Mr O'Carroll.
In cross-examination, Mr Curry told Mr O'Carroll the defendant had told "a very big nice story" with the help of statements that he had had access to for a long time.
"Joe was down, to the value of £160,000, and he murdered Mark and he murdered Mark in the wrong," Mr Curry said.
Mr Curry said that the day before the murder, the defendant told him he had "got a unit together", that it was ready and that he had asked him if he would get involved to help abduct Mr Dwyer. "I said no. He'd gone round asking everyone's permission bar the Garda," Mr Curry said.
"He was talking about taking Mark out of a flat, torturing him and then murdering him. Joe was there when Mark was being tortured. Joe was there when Mark was being shot," Mr Curry said.
Asked by counsel how he could know if Mr Delaney was present when the murder took place if he was not there himself, Mr Curry replied: "I just know he was there."
"When he spoke to me the next day he said the hardest thing he had to do was to leave him in the field, so I presume he was in the field. Joe was well aware of what had happened," he said.
"Joe lost a huge parcel. He blamed Mark in the wrong, God love him. It could've been a flip of a coin. Mark could be here and I could've been in a hole," he said.
"I was in the business to make a few quid, not go round killing people," Mr Curry said.
"If Mark had taken the drugs he would've come clean after 20 minutes of torture. I'm sure Mark was begging him to stop. I'm sure Mark would've said novenas to get him to stop," he said.
Prosecution counsel had previously said that the State Pathologist would give evidence to say that Mr Dwyer died from a laceration of the brain from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, fired at "virtual contact range."
Stab wounds in the forearms and multiple wounds, possibly caused by a nail bar, were found on the body, including imprints of a gun nozzle on the chest where a shotgun was pressed into the flesh with force.
The case before Mr Justice Quirke and a jury of seven men and four women continues today.