A Limerick man accused of murdering a deaf young man told a jury he saw the victim being beaten about the head with an iron bar.
When he took the stand at the Central Criminal Court yesterday the accused, Mr William Roche, said he saw a second man, not before the court, hit the deceased three or four times on the head with a ratchet that he had taken from the boot of his car. The accused told Mr Michael Malon- ey, defending, that the second man left the deceased lying on the ground and said "let's go".
Mr Roche (23), a native of Limerick, with an address at Millstream, Killaloe, Co Clare, denies the murder of Mr John Carroll of Cappamore, Co Limerick, on December 4th, 1998, at Garraun, Ballinahinch, Newport, Co Tipperary. The court has heard that Mr Carroll died from multiple skull fractures.
The accused told the jury he first met the deceased at about 6 p.m. on the day of the killing. Mr Carroll had worked with his former girlfriend, Ms Bernadette Fitzgerald.
He said he went with Mr Carroll to the local pub, where the second man later joined them.
Later, an argument erupted when the second man demanded that Mr Carroll pay him £30 to stay overnight in the home of a female acquaintance. He saw Mr Carroll buying drinks in the pub, and had said, "if he's going spending it I'll have to have some too," the accused told the jury. "I saw [the second man] hitting John Carroll, giving knees into the chest."
The accused said he took the injured man into the acquaintance's home and laid him on the couch. He was gasping for breath. Mr Roche said he suggested taking him to Limerick Regional Hospital. He lifted him into the back of the second man's car and sat beside him. A third person, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sat in the front passenger seat.
On the way, the second man turned into the back roads heading towards Ballinahinch. The accus- ed said that when he told the second man that was "not the way to the hospital" he replied, "he knows too much about me, he might go to the guards".
Mr John Carroll noticed they were driving up a lonely boreen, the accused said. Mr Carroll tipped him on the shoulder and said "don't leave him rob me". When the car stopped, the second man told Mr Carroll to get out and asked him "where his money was". "He [the second man] hit him two or three times with the bar," the accused said.
He said the female passenger shouted at the second man to "mind the blood".
Mr Maloney asked the accused if he had made any effort to check Mr John Carroll before pulling away. "No, My Lord, I was in the back seat of the car," the accused replied. Asked if he was afraid of the second man, he replied: "Yes, I was."
The trial continues today.