A Laois teenager accused of murder asked his grandmother for a hammer on the night in question, it was alleged at the Central Criminal court yesterday.
The grandmother of the accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury that her grandson asked her for a hammer on the evening of November 11th, 2003.
When asked by prosecuting counsel Mr Anthony Sammon SC if the accused had asked her for a hammer "to fix something", the witness replied: "Yes, but he often did that, so it wasn't unusual, but we couldn't find a hammer.
"There's a hammer usually kept in the drawer, but there was a calendar over it, so we didn't get it," she added.
The 16-year-old accused denies murdering a 14-year-old youth in Co Laois on November 11th, 2003.
The deceased's body was found on waste ground, in an area known as Smith's Field on the town's outskirts around 11 p.m. that night.
The grandmother of the accused also testified in court that he came home to her house at "about quarter to six" that evening. "It was raining, so he took off his tracksuit top - that was very wet. He put it in the laundry basket and came down for dinner," she said. "He wasn't very hungry, he didn't eat a lot or anything," she added.
She said she took his damp tracksuit top from his room and hung it in the kitchen to dry.
When asked by Mr Sammon if she used detergent on it, she replied: "Just a little. I dipped it in water, but it was clean".
Earlier her husband, the accused's paternal grandfather, told the jury he was shown a hammer by gardaí following a search of his garden on November 12th: "I was shown a hammer at the boundary wall at my house, behind a sheet of galvanised steel," he said. "I never saw the hammer before in my life. I have tools for my trade, yes, but my hammer is a claw hammer," he insisted.
He was shown a hammer in court and confirmed it was the same hammer he was shown by the gardaí in his garden.
Evidence was also given by Garda James Marr, who found the hammer allegedly used by the accused. He told the jury that a search of one of the bedrooms also revealed a bloodied towel in one of a number of empty mobile phone boxes.
The trial continues.