An apprentice mechanic on the Naval ship LE Eithne was "foolish", "stupid", even "reckless" to put a crewmate on a guardrail from where he went overboard, but he was not a murderer, a defence counsel told a jury yesterday.
Mr Brendan Grehan SC, defending, said the actions of the accused were those of a 19-year-old with 10 pints on board, rather than those of a sober, experienced seaman.
But Mr Tom O'Connell SC, prosecuting, said the "inescapable conclusion" was that Mr Sean Lundon must have intended to drown his crewmate.
Mr O'Connell told the Central Criminal Court jury: "The natural and probable consequence of putting a drunken, beaten man into a river in the early hours of the morning and then walking away . . . is that the person will drown."
Mr Lundon (21), James Connolly Park, Tipperary Town denies the murder of Able Seaman Brian Gorey (22), Devon Close, Castletroy View, Limerick, at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin, on April 22nd, 2001.
Mr O'Connell alleged that Mr Lundon "battered" Mr Gorey carried him "like a sack of potatoes" to the deck and "pushed him overboard". His failure to sound the alert, "man overboard", was a "callous" act that was further evidence of Mr Lundon's intent.
The jury has heard that in statements to gardaí, Mr Lundon said he and Mr Gorey had a row in the ship's recreation room. Mr Lundon alleged that Mr Gorey started the row by throwing an ashtray at him. He told gardaí he reacted by punching Mr Gorey in the face and striking his head with a broom handle.
But the prosecution counsel argued that Mr Lundon's later admission that it was he, in fact, that had thrown the ashtray, combined with objective evidence from the scene, suggested that there was no row or melee, but that Mr Gorey was lying on a sofa when he was struck with something heavy enough to cause a bloodstain some 12 by 16 inches.
Mr O'Connell also argued that it was "inherently incredible" that Mr Gorey would have then allowed the man who had just "battered him" to carry him "like a sack of potatoes" out to the ship's deck without offering any resistance. He alleged that Mr Gorey was already temporarily concussed or unconscious when the accused man carried him to the after-deck and pushed him overboard. It flowed from that that the accused must have intended him to drown, or at the very minimum, intended to cause him serious injury, he said.
But in his closing speech, Mr Grehan said there was no evidence that Mr Gorey was concussed or unconsciousness at any stage. There was, at best, the possibility allowed by the deputy state pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, that an injury to the side of Mr Gorey's face might have caused him to be temporarily concussed. He said there was evidence that might have suggested that some sort of defence amounting to negligence on the part of the Navy might be raised. But there was no such defence available in criminal law, he said.
He said the evidence suggested that the cries that two crewmen heard were those of Mr Lundon calling for help after Mr Gorey went overboard. Two crewmen, Cadet David Fleming and Able Seaman Tadhg McCarthy, initially thought the cries came from the far side of the quays, he said.
But he argued, "the person who called for help was clearly Sean Lundon". Mr Grehan also invited the jury to conclude that contrary to the evidence of the ship's captain, the bar in the recreation room did not cease operating at midnight. He said the discrepancies in Mr Lundon's account to gardaí were not evidence of him lying, but evidence "of somebody trying to remember what happened in the space of five minutes at 5 a.m. in the morning when he had 10 pints on board".
Mr Lundon's action in carrying his crewmate to the after-deck and putting him up on the ledge of the guardrail to get some air was "foolish" and "stupid". His pushing Mr Gorey in the chest when he was on the ledge did show "indifference or recklessness", he said, but not intent.
The jury is expected to retire to consider a verdict today.