A Dublin man has denied the murder of a family friend and neighbour outside a house in Ballymun three years ago. At the start of his trial before Mrs Justice McGuinness in the Central Criminal Court, Mr David Dunne (25), of Coultry Road, Ballymun, Dublin, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Patrick Higgins (50), of Coultry Grove, on November 13th, 1995.
The court yesterday was told the killing followed "a dispute about something stupid" involving Mr Higgins and the accused man's mother. Mr Higgins's widow, Kathleen, gave evidence that she saw Mr Dunne jumping at her husband's back with his foot and then "jumping on his face" when he fell.
Mr Sean Ryan SC, prosecuting, told the jury the killing followed a christening party, so that "what started out as a celebration of life ended up with the ending of a life". He alleged Mr Dunne had "smashed Mr Higgins's head against a wall" and it had made contact "with such a thud and with such force that it was heard in houses in the area". He said the families of Mr Higgins and Mr Dunne were "very good friends" and had been "in and out of each other's houses for years".
On November 12th, 1995, Ms Kathleen Higgins and her husband Patrick had held a party following the christening of their first grandchild, a baby girl born that September to one of their daughters.
Members of the Dunne family were among 30 guests invited to their house for the party.
Most of the guests had gone by 11 p.m., until there was only Mr and Mrs Higgins and Mr Dunne's mother, Mrs Helen Dunne, left in the kitchen. At that stage, "there began some kind of verbal dispute or altercation between Mrs Dunne and Mr Higgins" which was "over something stupid".
"We know that Mrs Dunne had a great deal of drink taken," Mr Ryan said, "and we know that Mr Higgins had a fair amount of drink taken." However the prosecution would show that drink was not of significant relevance. Ms Kathleen Higgins told the jury she had lived in Coultry Grove for 18 years.
The day of the christening "went really well". Her friend Mrs Dunne had come to her house at about 3.30 p.m. to join the christening party.
Mr Dunne and his girlfriend and two children had also been there, though they left later to collect food and nappies from their flat, intending to stay the night in his mother's house.
"It was about 12 or a little after 12" when Mr Dunne and his girl friend left, leaving Mrs Higgins, her husband and Mrs Dunne in the kitchen. At that stage, Mrs Higgins said, Mrs Dunne "started arguing with Pat over borrowing this thing and that thing".
The argument continued until Mr Higgins stood up and said: "Leave it, just leave it", walked out of the room and went upstairs.
Mrs Dunne ran after him shouting, Mrs Higgins said. She herself followed Mrs Dunne upstairs. Her husband had locked himself into the toilet and when he emerged minutes later, he went back downstairs, put on his coat and left the house. Mrs Dunne came downstairs and "ran out after him".
Mrs Higgins was still on the up stairs landing when she heard Mrs Dunne shouting. She looked out the landing window and "saw Mrs Dunne with her hands around my husband's neck". Her husband had a heart condition, Mrs Higgins told the court, and her first thoughts were: "Oh no, his heart will give up." When she ran outside, she saw Mr Dunne and his girlfriend approaching. She told him: "Pat and your mammy are having words" and the three went around the corner to the laneway at the side of the house where the row was happening.
She saw Mrs Dunne on the ground with Patrick "walking away from her". Mr Dunne "sprang past his mother" and ran at her husband, who fell forward and then backwards down on the ground "face up".
"David started jumping on his face," Mrs Higgins said. She heard a "crunching noise" and Mr Dunne started kicking her husband in the right side of his body. "I don't know how many times he kicked him into the body," she said. Throughout this time she had been shouting at him, saying "David, please don't, it's Pat."
Asked by Mr Ryan which part of Mr Dunne had first hit her husband, she replied: "His foot." When her husband fell to the ground it was "very clear" who it was, she said. She had kept saying "Oh, his heart" and "was pleading" with Mr Dunne to stop.
The court heard that Mr Dunne made statements to the gardai later that day in which he said he had thought his mother was being "mugged or battered or raped" when he ran at the man in the laneway and that he was not aware it was Patrick Higgins.
Mr Gregory Murphy SC, defending, said it would be "no secret" that Mrs Higgins had made a number of statements but that they had waited to hear "which version she was relying on" before deciding to inform the jury of that.
The trial continues today.