A teenager was found dead on waste ground after swallowing some of his own teeth and suffering serious head injuries, a murder trial jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mr Michael O'Brien (27), single and unemployed, of Gallowsfield, Tralee, Co Kerry, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of James Healy (16), of Shanakill, Tralee, Co Kerry, at Monavalley Industrial Estate, Tralee, on or about February 22nd, 1997.
Opening the case for the State, Mr John Edwards SC told the jury the accused man and the youth had been associates and had drunk cider together at different times and at various places in the town.
After having been missing for three days, James Healy's body was discovered on waste ground near a factory off the Monavalley Road in Tralee.
Mr Edwards told the jury the body was found with injuries to the right temple which caused brain injuries and skull fractures.
He said the jury would later hear evidence from the State Pathologist, Prof John Harbison, that the injuries were consistent with having been struck with piping.
Mr Edwards told the jury that 13 of James Healy's teeth were knocked out of their sockets, some of which were injected into the windpipe and caused suffocation.
Giving evidence, Mr James McCarthy, of the Muing Estate, Tralee, told the court that he found the youth's body on the morning of February 25th, 1997, as he checked on his horses that he kept in the field.
"I knew he was dead by the look of him," he said.
"I thought it was someone drunk or something until I got close. I was frightened when I saw him. I ran into the factory and rang the guards."
A factory worker, Mr Gerry Maloney, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene, told the court he found the youth "lying on his back with his eyes wide open and a lot of marks on his face".
Mr Maloney said there was an open gash on his face and he looked swollen, or "puffed".
"He had one arm to the side of his head with his hand up over his shoulder away from his head," he said.
An ambulance driver, Mr James Pembroke, told the court that when he arrived on the scene he checked the youth for a pulse and any signs of life.
Asked if he found any, Mr Pembroke replied: "No, my lord."
The trial, before Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen and a jury of eight women and four men, continues today.