A man was attacked, robbed and stabbed to death during a drunken melee outside a Dublin pub after his van had stalled at traffic lights, a murder trial jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mr David Watson was stabbed in the heart and died after he attempted to recover equipment being stolen from his employer's van after he had stalled at traffic lights outside a pub on Thomas Street at closing time.
Mr Alan Lyons (20), of Bonham Street, Dublin, denies the murder of Mr Watson (21), of James's Court, Echlin Street, Dublin, on April 25th, 1998, but admits manslaughter.
In her opening address to the jury, prosecution counsel Ms Maureen Clarke SC said this was a "pointless, tragic, motiveless killing where the unfortunate David Watson was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
She said the deceased had had a "few drinks too many" as he drove his employer's van that night and had slumped at the wheel outside a Thomas Street pub as he waited at traffic lights. Onlookers telephoned gardai but after waking Mr Watson and getting him to move his van, a number of others had "less than honourable intentions", thinking him an "easy touch for a mugging," Ms Clarke said.
After Mr Watson fell asleep again, the accused "went up and put his hand inside his pocket to see what he could steal and there were others in the back of the van to see what they could steal," counsel said.
Mr Watson woke up and got out of the van to retrieve his employer's equipment when a drunken melee ensued.
People were throwing Mr Watson's van keys between themselves while others helped themselves to the equipment while four or five others attacked him. Vandals slashed the van's tyres and Mr Watson fell back with a thud, she said.
Prosecution witness Ms Mary Hynes said that on the night of Mr Watson's death, she witnessed a crowd of people, "all throwing punches and kicks directed at one person."
She said she approached the crowd in order to help the man being punched and kicked and to break up the fight. After pulling him to safety, a woman approached him and hit him with a wheel brace, she said.
Ms Hynes said that she later went in search of her bag, which someone had told her had been stolen by the accused and when she approached him for it, he told her to "f..k off", that he hadn't got it.
When he later produced it from under his jacket and "eventually gave it to me, I went back and he [Mr Watson] was lying in the road," Ms Hynes said.
A second witness, Ms Suzanne White, said she saw the fight and later saw the accused with a knife. She saw three to four inches of the blade and later, when the accused and his friend were walking behind her, she overheard Mr Lyons say that he had "got rid of it."
Ms White agreed with counsel that she understood this to mean Mr Lyons had disposed of the knife.
The trial before Mr Justice O'Donovan and a jury will continue today.