A frantic 999 call made by the girlfriend of a man killed during a row with his father was played for a murder trial jury at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.
"My boyfriend's been stabbed by his father," Ms Kelly Richardson (23), was heard telling the emergency services from a public phone box outside the court in Edenderry, Co Offaly, in the early hours of November 15th, 1999.
When ambulance technician Mr Eddie Carney asked if the injured man was able to talk, Ms Richardson replied: "As soon as this happened he started getting weak."
She said he had been stabbed in the chest "near his armpit on the left hand side".
"There's very serious bleeding - it's all over him," she was heard saying.
The tape was played by the prosecution on the fifth day of the trial of Mr Thomas Groome (47), for the murder of his son Mr Christopher Groome (19), at Churchview Heights, Edenderry, Co Offaly, in November 1999.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The jury heard a second call from Ms Richardson, made from a mobile phone in a caravan where her boyfriend lay dying on the floor. In a statement read out by the prosecution, Mr Carney said he could hear the accused shouting for an ambulance in the background while he was giving first aid instructions to Ms Richardson.
"I could hear a man shouting 'Where's the ambulance? Get the ambulance out here,'" he said.
The jury heard Mr Carney saying to Ms Richardson: "Tell that man to stop shouting, the ambulance is on its way. It's coming from Tullamore. It can't go any faster."
The frantic efforts of the accused and Ms Richardson to save Christopher Groome's life were heard as they struggled to give him CPR and stop the bleeding. "He's gone very cold, he's not breathing," Ms Richardson said. When Mr Carney asked her if they could feel a pulse on Mr Groome's neck, she replied, "No".
The trial continues next week before Mr Justice White.