A Kerry man accused of murdering a teenager said gardai had told him two other men had killed the youth and he would be a star witness in the murder trial, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Giving defence evidence, Mr Michael O'Brien told his counsel, Mr Blaise O'Carroll, he agreed "the guards told me [two named men] and others killed James Healy".
Mr Michael O'Brien (27), single and unemployed, of Gallowsfield, Tralee, Co Kerry, has pleaded not guilty to murdering James Healy (16), of Shanakill, Tralee, at Monavalley Industrial Estate, Tralee, on or about February 22nd, 1997.
Shortly after the murder investigation began, the defendant went into Tralee Garda station and told gardai he knew "who did it", the jury heard.
Mr O'Brien agreed he went to Tralee Garda station late on February 26th, 1997, or in the early hours of the following morning, and said: "One of my staff got killed."
"I know who did it. He was murdered around 2.30 to 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. I was about 60 yards away from him. I saw [a named man] and two others coming out of the field."
Denying what he had allegedly told gardai was true, Mr O'Brien said: "The guards told me [two named men] must have killed James Healy and so what's in there isn't correct. I wasn't even there," he said.
"The guards told me it was the boys killed James Healy and I would be a star witness," Mr O'Brien told the court.
"I just went to the barracks to clarify matters that they committed the murder. They committed the crime.
"They should be in this courtroom, not me," Mr O'Brien told the court.
"I was kind of in the position where I would be next, that I would be going to the graveyard," he said.
"I never seen them coming out of any field. That's what the guards wanted me to say. I was down town that night till the early hours."
The jury previously heard that Mr O'Brien and the deceased were allegedly associates who drank cider together occasionally at different places in Tralee. After having been missing for three days, Mr Healy's body was found on waste ground near a factory off the Monavalley Road in Tralee. State Pathologist Dr 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.
Some of Mr Healy's teeth were later found lodged in his windpipe and lungs.
Dr Harbison said he believed the teeth were inhaled, causing suffocation.
Cause of death was suffocation, head injuries and shock.
The trial, before Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen and a jury of eight women and four men, continues today.