A teenager found dead in a field was so badly beaten that part of his jawbone was found lying beside his body, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday. Mr Michael O'Brien (27), single and unemployed, of Gallowsfield, Tralee, Co Kerry, pleaded not guilty to the murder of James Healy (16) of Shanakill, Tralee, at Monavalley Industrial Estate, Tralee, on or about February 22nd, 1997.
Mr O'Brien and the deceased were allegedly associates who drank cider together occasionally in Tralee town.
Having been missing for three days, Mr Healy's body was found on waste ground near a factory off the Monavalley Road.
State Pathologist Prof John Harbison told the court that Mr James Healy suffered a "litany of injuries".
The injuries included the knocking out of 13 of his teeth, a fractured jaw and skull and 20 head injuries.
The jawbone was attached to a tooth and it was found near pieces of human tissue and a piece of scalp on the ground beside the body.
Prof Harbison told the court that, during the post-mortem, he discovered 31/2 of Mr Healy's teeth lodged in his lungs and windpipe.
He said Mr Healy had been struck in the mouth with an implement that "passed through the lower lip" causing his teeth to be "freshly torn" from his jaw.
He said he believed Mr Healy had inhaled the teeth, some blood and a piece of bone into his lungs and windpipe, causing suffocation.
Suggesting the injuries had been caused by "something fairly sharp but not as sharp as a knife", Prof Harbison said that upon initial inspection of the body he could feel fractures in the right cheek bone area and head injuries.
He said the scalp had a C-shaped laceration that caused the "chipping of the bone" and created a "skin flap" leaving the skull visible.
Examining the skull internally, Prof Harbison said the "jagged bone ends caused damage to the brain" as he removed it from the skull.
"The brain surface had bruising on both sides, high up and low down", and was covered in blood.
Prof Harbison recorded the cause of death as head injuries, suffocation and a loss of blood, resulting in shock.
A bloodstained four-foot long metal pipe, found lying across the body, was produced in court as a possible weapon used to inflict the injuries.
Asked if he thought the piping could have caused the injuries, Prof Harbison said it was a "very unique object and one would have to say this was it".
The trial, before Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen and a jury of eight women and four men, continues today.
