A DUBLIN man faced trial yesterday for the murder of a man kicked in the head during a fight in Basin Street flats in 1997.
Mr Derek Wade (19) of Church Avenue South, Rialto, denies murdering Mr William Cahill (28) at Mary Aikenhead House, James's Street, Dublin, between June 7th and June 11th 1997. Mr Cahill died in hospital three days after the fight.
A Central Criminal Court jury heard a row broke out late on June 7th. A large number of people had been drinking and the fight started as a group left a party at 1 a.m. Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, said witnesses would say they saw two attackers standing over Mr Cahill, and kicks were landed to his face and head. It is alleged Mr Wade was one of the two.
The jury must decide whether Mr Wade intended to cause death or serious injury, but it did not matter if Mr Wade or the other attacker hit the fatal blows: if he was involved in a joint enterprise and encouraged the other person's actions, then he, too, was guilty, he said.
The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, said the injuries did not penetrate the scalp, but caused bleeding into the brain.
The cause of death was swelling and compression of the brain, with bleeding into it, due to injuries consistent with "a number of kicks to the right side of the head". The attacker was probably wearing soft runners. He noted needle marks suggesting Mr Cahill was "a possible drug addict".
Mr Lloyd Cogan of Fatima Mansions said when he left the party Mr Wade and another man followed him down the stairs. At the bottom "whatever happened, Willie Cahill threw a box at Derek. I think he missed him, but he fell three or four steps" off the stairs and onto the ground. They started fighting, he said.