A sister of a Dublin man accused of murder told the Central Criminal Court yesterday that he arrived at her house with a knife and, after cleaning his bloodied face in the bathroom, told her he had stabbed a man and beaten his ex-girlfriend.
She was giving evidence at the trial of Mr David Larkin (34), formerly of Victoria Street, Portobello. Mr Larkin denies the murder of a Ballymun man, Mr Michael Murphy (39), outside the home of Mr Larkin's former girlfriend in Ivar Street, Stoneybatter, on March 21st, 1998.
He has pleaded not guilty to the murder but has pleaded guilty to another charge of a serious assault on his ex-girlfriend, Ms Christine Hughes, on the same occasion.
The jury has heard that Ms Hughes was hospitalised after the assault, and a friend who was in the house told them that Mr Larkin had "left her for dead".
The jury has also heard Garda evidence that Ms Hughes had phoned them earlier in the night of the stabbing to complain that Mr Larkin had called to her house. After visiting her there, gardai had advised her to ring them if he returned.
Mr Larkin's sister, Suzanne, said her brother had come to her house in Mount Temple Street at about 12.30 a.m. on the morning of the incident. When she went to bed she heard him making phone calls downstairs. At around 6.20 a.m., she awoke to find him at her front door.
He told her he was in "big trouble" and walked past her to the bathroom. His face was bleeding and he was washing his hands. Later, in the sitting room, he told her what had happened and asked her to ring the gardai.
Ms Larkin agreed with Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley, defending, that in the course of this her brother had said: "There was a fellow around there and he was winding me up all night on the telephone".
Residents of Stoneybatter gave evidence of hearing "a scuffle" on the night. One eyewitness said that she saw a man kick and then hit the victim with a closed fist on the head as he lay on the street.
i that as the accused man kicked the door "it opened as though someone was opening it". She also accepted that in her police statement, she said she saw the knife after the door was opened.
Earlier, the ex-girlfriend of the accused, Ms Hughes (a former escort agency worker), told Mr Vaughan Buckley that she asked Mr Michael Murphy to "sit with her" on the night of the killing because of her fear of the accused. She travelled to Ballymun to pick Mr Murphy up after midnight, and said she "was adamant that there was going to be no confrontation".
Ms Hughes accepted counsel's suggestion that the accused, Mr Larkin, was "besotted" with her.
Under further cross-examination, Ms Hughes accepted that she had told gardai that when she asked for men to "have a talk with him" in 1996, she had "decided to play David at his own game".
"I wanted him to realise what he was putting me through," her statement to police read. But she had always insisted that there be no violence, she said.
Ms Hughes denied that the dead man was one of three who had spoken to Mr Larkin on her behalf on that occasion in 1996.
She did not accept that when Mr Larkin rushed into her house and beat her up on the night of the stabbing, he was a man out of control, as counsel suggested.
Ms Hughes's friend, Ms Denise Buckley, told the court that she believed that the deceased man, Mr Murphy, "didn't mean to cause trouble". Ms Buckley, who was in the house on the night of the incident, said she knew him as "a very quiet, gentle person".
She described hiding behind a wardrobe when she heard the accused coming into the house and running up the stairs. Ms Hughes was already hiding under a bed.
She said Mr Larkin came into the room twice before he finally saw Ms Hughes under the bed, pulled her out and began "stamping on her head".
But she did not accept counsel's suggestion that Mr Larkin appeared like a man out of control. "Not out of control", she said. "He knew exactly what he was doing."
The trial continues before Ms Justice McGuinness and a jury.