A witness in a murder trial has denied taunting the accused man and being the instigator of a stabbing incident which resulted in the death of his young friend.
The trial of Pat Doherty (46 ) Clooncon West, Glenamaddy, got underway last Tuesday at the Central Criminal Court, sitting in Galway. The accused pleaded not guilty to murdering 20-year-old Francis Fahy at The Square, Glenamaddy, in the early hours of December 15, 2008. A plea of guilty to manslaughter was not accepted by the prosecution and a 12-member jury was sworn in to hear the evidence. Doherty had also pleaded guilty to assaulting Gerard Costello causing him harm on the same date.
The jury heard that Doherty, a native of Glasgow, had been drinking at Harte’s Corner House and there was some exchange outside the pub between Mr Costello and the deceased man. In his opening speech, Mr Michael Delaney SC, prosecuting, said that Doherty drove home, picked up a long-bladed kitchen knife, returned to the pub, and made his way to Mr Costello and Mr Fahy, who were waiting for a taxi. He then stabbed Mr Fahy once with the knife into the back and stabbed Mr Costello a number of times.
Mr Fahy was taken to Roscommon County Hospital but was pronounced dead at 2.30am. The cause of death, according to medical evidence, was a single stab wound to the back which penetrated the rib cage and into the right lung causing it to collapse. Mr Costello’s injuries had not been serious and he was discharged the following day.
Giving evidence at the second day of the trial [yesterday], Mr Costello (31 ) from Creggs, Co Galway, said that there had been “some incident” with the accused two years previously. He said that on December 15 last Doherty was sitting at the bar staring at him and his friends. After a while he went up to get a drink at the bar and asked Doherty what was he staring at. Later on that night when he was waiting with his friends for Mr Fahy’s father to pick them up in the taxi he suddenly banged his head off a lamp post. Mr Costello said that it wasn’t until he got into the taxi that he had seen Doherty with the knife.
Regarding the injuries Mr Costello said that he had rubbed his shoulder and noticed blood on his hand. He said that it wasn’t until he was being brought to hospital later on by his father that he noticed a pain in his shoulder and a hole in his stomach. The blood-stained t-shirt was shown to the jury.
When Mr Bernard Madden SC, defending, put it to him that he had intended to cause trouble Mr Costello denied it stating that he had only talked to Doherty once. However, in her statement pub proprietor Caterine Harte said that she had seen Mr Costello get a drink at the bar, lean in, and say something in Doherty’s ear. She said that she could tell by Mr Costello’s eyes that “it was nothing nice”. Mr Madden put it to Mr Costello that he was seen whispering in Doherty’s ear at least four times and that Doherty had got increasingly aggitated by this.
John Reilly, who had been sitting with Doherty at the bar, said in his statement how Mr Costello kept putting his pint between himself and Doherty and that he would “mutter something” in Doherty’s ear. He later overheard Mr Costello telling Mr Fahy that he was “going to annoy this lad”. The court also head that crude comments were also made about Doherty’s wife and daughters.
Mr Madden again put it to the witness that he was “the instigator of all of this”. Mr Costello strenously denied this.
Anne Hughes said that her daughter Sandra had been standing with a group of people, including Mr Fahy and Mr Costello, near to where Doherty was sitting. When she went to speak to her daughter Mrs Hughes said that she heard Doherty mumbling to himself, saying: “I’m not afraid of no f**king man and no man will touch me” and “I’m going to kill some f**king man tonight”. She told Doherty to go home and then informed the proprietors of the pub, Tommy and Catherine Harte, of her concerns.
Regarding the incident outside the pub, Sandra Hughes said in evidence that Doherty came towards the group and pushed her aside causing her to fall. She said that Mr Costello then pushed Doherty to the ground. Doherty got up and waved the knife around.
During cross examination by Mr Madden, Miss Hughes said that she didn’t know much about the history between her then boyfriend and Doherty only that they had had a “run in”.
Another witness Niall Miskell spoke of how Doherty had “got the knife and swung it over his [Francis’] head, over the shoulder, and into his back”. He said that Francis then stumbled into his father’s hackney bus and that Doherty “went after” Mr Costello and stabbed him about six times into the chest. Mr Miskell said that the pub owner, Mr Harte appeared and calmed Doherty down before taking the knife off him. He added that the whole incident took between 10 to 15 minutes.
The trial continues today.
