A dying man cried out for help while he lay “in rivers of blood” in front of his four-year-old son, a murder trial was told yesterday.
Christopher, "Christy" Cawley (33), a father-of-six, died of multiple stab wounds following an assault at the stairwell of a block of flats at Tyrone Place, Inchicore, Dublin, on October 29th, 2006.
Brothers Warren Dumbrell (34) and Jeffrey Dumbrell (28), both of Emmet Road, Inchicore, have pleaded not guilty to his murder.
Warren Dumbrell also pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill Mr Cawley's wife Janet.
Anne Maguire, a neighbour of the Cawley family, said she heard a commotion on the night of the murder and came out on to the balcony overlooking a patch of waste ground in front of the apartments at Tyrone Place.
Ms Maguire said she called the gardai when she realised that Mr Cawley had been stabbed.
“There was blood everywhere,” she said, “I can't actually recall what I said. I was hysterical. There was a river of blood pouring out of him. He had gone whiter than white. His voice was getting shaky. He used to shout all the time. You could really hear him.”
Another neighbour James Devlin said that he met Mr Cawley shortly before he died just in front of the flat complex where he lived. “I asked him was he going to light a fire,” Mr Devlin recalled, “no, he said,
'I'm going to fight six men'”.
Mr Devlin said he did not take Mr Cawley serious at the time. “I said to Christy, 'go home and get your supper'."
Mr Devlin recalled a conversation they had on the Thursday before Mr Cawley's death. He confirmed that Mr Cawley had told him that he followed Tommy Dumbrell [brother to Warren and Jeffrey] up to the Crescent [Emmet Crescent], put a knife to his face and threatened that he would “cut him up”.
The case in front of Mr Justice Paul Carney continues on Monday afternoon.
