A Kerry man accused of murdering a teenager was guilty and the jury would be convinced of that beyond reasonable doubt, a prosecution counsel told a jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday. In his summing up speech, Mr John Edwards SC, prosecuting, told the jury that the accused "viciously and violently" bludgeoned the deceased to death before cycling into town to secure an alibi for himself.
Mr Michael O'Brien (27), single and unemployed, of Gallowsfield, Tralee, Co Kerry, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of James Healy (16), of Shanakill, Tralee, at Monavalley Industrial Estate, Tralee, on or about February 22nd, 1997.
Mr Edwards told the jury that Mr O'Brien murdered Mr Healy by bludgeoning him around the head with conduit piping, splitting open his head, causing Mr Healy's teeth to be "scattered with bits of flesh attached".
Mr O'Brien "forcefully" beat Mr Healy into the ground, and we know this because of a depression in the ground under his head, counsel said.
Describing the accused as a "vicious and dangerous person", Mr Edwards said that immediately after the killing Mr O'Brien got on his bike and tried to find an alibi. "His first instinct was self-preservation."
Summing up evidence previously put before the court, and putting forward the case for the State, counsel said a number of witnesses had said Mr O'Brien had made references to Mr Healy's body lying in a field with injuries, before the body had been found.
Mr Edwards said witnesses had told the court that Mr O'Brien had made references to Mr Healy being "dead, murdered, in a field and having his face drove in" as well as references to a bar lying across the chest of the deceased.
"Nobody else could have had access to that information. At this point in time nobody knew that. The only person who knew that was the killer."
Mr O'Brien and the deceased were allegedly associates who drank cider together occasionally at different places in Tralee town.
After having been missing for three days, Mr Healy's body was found on wasteground near a factory off the Monavalley Road.
The State Pathologist, Prof John Harbison, previously told the court that Mr Healy had had 13 of his teeth knocked out, pieces of his jaw dislodged and had 20 head injuries.
Later 3 1/2 teeth were found lodged in his windpipe and lungs. Prof Harbison said he believed the teeth were inhaled, causing suffocation. Cause of death was suffocation, head injuries and shock.
The trial, before Mr Justice Kinlen and a jury, continues today.