Murder accused denies filming and photographing scene of stabbing to show others what he had done

A murder accused has denied using a phone to film and photograph the scene of the fatal stabbing to show others what he had done.

Andrew Lacey also denied targeting the left side of Derek Reddin’s upper body with a knife and deliberately stabbing him through the chest during the fatal “scuffle”. The has heard trial that Mr Lacey was attacked late at night as part of a feud between associates of both men.

The 35-year-old, of Riverside, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Reddin (31) at Loughlinstown Drive between October 14th and 15th, 2019.

The accused told prosecution counsel Róisín Lacey SC that he did not intend to harm anyone and only produced a knife after Mr Reddin “lunged” at him with a baseball bat.

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Counsel put it to the accused that three slash marks and two stab cuts on the left side of Mr Reddin’s clothing contradict Mr Lacey’s claim that he simply held the knife out to repel his attack and that the stabbing was accidental.

She said the cuts and the fatal stab wound, in which the entire 8.5cm blade of the knife penetrated the deceased’s chest, showed that Mr Lacey was “targeting the left hand side of his body”.

Mr Lacey said “that’s incorrect” and that he had “literally held the knife out trying to repel him”. He said he does not remember stabbing Mr Reddin and described the incident that led to the death as a “slight scuffle”.

Mr Lacey rejected the evidence of another witness, David Howard, who said he saw the accused “straddling” Mr Reddin on the ground and “digging the knife into him”.

Mr Lacey further denied trying to make his own story look better by making up a claim about seeing Mr Reddin use the bat to repeatedly strike his friend.

The accused accepted that he initially lied to gardaí when he said Mr Reddin and another man attacked him with a knife and two bats, but insisted that Mr Reddin did have a baseball bat. He could not say what happened to the bat and accepted that gardaí who searched the area found only a narrow iron bar that did not resemble the weapon he described.

Mr Howard previously told the trial that Mr Reddin had gone to Loughlinstown that night for a “straightener” or a “boxing match” with Mr Lacey.

Mr Lacey was seen on CCTV leaving the Lough Inn pub with a friend at about 11.40pm and going to a nearby takeaway. The two men were walking along Loughlinstown Drive with their food when they encountered Mr Reddin and Mr Howard.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Lacey stabbed Mr Reddin and did so knowing that the force he was using was more than was reasonably necessary for self-defence.

Mr Lacey has told the jury that the knife was one he used in his work with the parks department of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Mobile phone evidence showed that before calling gardaí after Mr Reddin was fatally injured, Mr Lacey phoned his brother Kevin and another man. Ms Lacey said Kevin Lacey and the other man were involved in the feud and she put it to Mr Lacey that he phoned them to tell them he had killed Mr Reddin.

Mr Lacey said he phoned them because he wanted them to contact his wife because her phone was not working properly at that time. He accepted that he could have contacted his wife using WhatsApp but said he did not think to at the time.

The accused said he used his friend’s phone to take photographs at the scene because he was worried that Mr Howard was trying to get Mr Reddin into his car to get away. He said he wanted to preserve the evidence that he had been attacked and denied that he filmed and photographed the scene to show others what he had done to Mr Reddin.

The trial continues before Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring and a jury of eight men and four women.