A Dublin man accused of murder has told a jury that a man lunged at him before he stabbed him. Alan Lyons (19), Bonham Street, Dublin, admits he killed David Watson (21), a Liverpool man working in Dublin, in a stabbing on Thomas Street early on April 25th, 1998, but he denies a charge of murder.
Mr Watson lived on Echlin Street and worked for a tyre service company. He was three times over the legal drink-driving limit when he fell asleep at the wheel at traffic lights on Thomas Street. When he pulled over, his van was attacked by a group of youths intent on mugging him and robbing the van.
In evidence before Mr Justice Smith at the Central Criminal Court, Lyons denied a prosecution allegation that he was claiming Mr Watson "fell on to the knife" during a fight that followed the mugging attempt. He thought Mr Watson was going to attack him and the stabbing was "just a reaction" to that.
Lyons told Mr Anthony Sammon SC, defending, he went up to Mr Watson's van after a friend told him there was a man asleep in it and it was "an easy touch". The driver woke up and they fought on the street.
Later, he saw one of his friends lying on his back and another getting sick, with Mr Watson still punching him on the head. "I was heading in that direction when I saw the knife on the ground," he said. He picked it up. "When I shouted at him to leave [the friend] alone, he looked at me and took a couple of steps towards me. I put the knife out. I told him, `Back off, or I'll stab you'." He put the knife straight out in front of him, but then "he made a lunge at me. It was a sort of a rugby tackle."
He panicked and ran towards the assembled crowd and shouted: "I'm after stabbing him, I'm after stabbing him." He saw a woman's handbag and jacket on the ground and he assumed they belonged to a friend, so he picked them up before running off. He dropped the knife in a shore at the side of the road.
He denied he spat at Ms Hynes her when she confronted him. about what he had done. He alleged she spat at him. He admitted he told her to f... off. He agreed his panic did not or stop him from initially lying to gardai. about his involvement and making up lies to cover his involvement. "The panic made me do all those things," he told counsel. said. "I couldn't think straight."
He told Mr Sammon he took cider, cannabis and sleeping pills the day before the attack, and had two pints of beer and "a few joints" just before the incident.
Mr Patrick Marrinan SC, prosecuting, said in closing: "There was an awful lot of animosity directed towards Mr Watson" and nobody was prepared to help except for two women, one of whom was attacked.
The evidence for a murder conviction was "overwhelming".
Mr Sammon said although "clearly, Alan Lyons did it", he had admitted to manslaughter and the jury could be satisfied that "justice will deal very much appropriately with Alan Lyons".
The jury is to retire today.