A 27-year-old Dublin man accused of fatally stabbing a Chinese student told a murder trial jury yesterday he definitely did not stab anyone deliberately.
Derek Wade, Church Avenue, Rialto, denies murdering Zhi Song (23) at Reuben Avenue, South Circular Road, Dublin, on June 29th, 2005. He also denies attempting to rob the purse of Xiau Wen Zhou on the same occasion.
In defence evidence at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, Mr Wade said he went into the house in Reuben Avenue "to take things". Mr Wade told his counsel, Michael O'Higgins SC, that he only discovered someone had died when he heard it on the radio three or four hours later.
He told Mr O'Higgins he picked up a meat cleaver and a knife in the kitchen "to frighten anyone off so I could get out of the place". Mr Wade said he went upstairs after searching the downstairs rooms. He didn't go into the first bedroom he came to because he didn't think he could search the room without waking up the occupant.
Cross examined by George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, Mr Wade said he didn't remember how he was holding the knife. "I know how I was holding it when I was going up the stairs but then I picked up more things when I was in the room. There were so many things in my hand."
He said: "It was just brushing into somebody. There was no stabbing motion."
Mr Birmingham suggested it was impossible for anyone to believe Mr Wade wouldn't know he had stuck his knife into someone's body to a depth of 16cm.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury of six men and five women.