The barrister for a man charged with murdering another man in his home has suggested his client was trying to wrestle the knife from his self-harming nephew when it entered the deceased man’s chest.
Michael Bowman SC was cross-examining his client’s nephew on Thursday in the Central Criminal Court trial of a 37-year-old a father of five, charged with murdering that nephew’s friend in Co Waterford.
Tadhg Butler, with an address at Seafield in Tramore, is accused of murdering 25-year-old Michael O’Dwyer on January 10th, 2014. He has pleaded not guilty.
Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, read out the statement made later that day by Mr Butler’s nephew, Tony O’Grady. He told gardaí that his uncle had walked up to the deceased and stuck a butcher’s knife into his chest during a party in Mr Butler’s home.
No recollection
However, the 25-year-old told the court that he had no recollection of giving that statement or of any of the events from that time, as he was on medication for mental disorders and was a drug addict at the time.
Under cross-examination by Mr Bowman, he agreed that his client had previously wrestled implements from him to prevent him self-harming.
He agreed that he would have been upset that night as it was approaching the anniversary of the death of his only sibling, who had died of a drug overdose outside a Dublin takeaway.
He agreed that he could have taken a knife from the kitchen with the intention of harming himself, and could have said that he wanted to end it all.
He agreed that his uncle could have tried to intervene and that he could have resisted.
“And he [the accused] struggled to take the knife off you, and he forcibly pulled the knife out of your hand in circumstances where Mr O’Dwyer was standing beside him or behind him and the knife went into him?” suggested Mr Bowman. “Could that be possible? Could it reasonably be true?”
“Yes, it could, but I’ve no recollection,” said Mr O’Grady.
The jury also heard yesterday that Mr O’Dwyer had died of a single stab wound to his chest.
Postmortem exam
State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy had carried out a postmortem exam on his body following his death in hospital hours after receiving the wound.
She concluded that he died from a single stab wound to the left of his chest, that injured his heart and left lung.
She said there had been a single forward thrust into body and that the direction appeared to be upwards towards the middle of the body. There were no defensive or other injuries.
She agreed with Mr Bowman that, once the skin was pierced, no extra force would have been needed to drive the blade in further.
The trial continues on Friday.