A man who was stabbed to death had regularly beaten his partner and threatened to kill her if she left him, the dead man's neighbour told his murder trial.
Ms Claire Keely, who lived in an adjoining flat to the deceased, Mr Derek Benson, told the court that on one occasion he hit his partner, Ms Jacqui Noble, with a plank because she did not cook his breakfast.
Ms Keely was giving evidence in the Central Criminal Court on the second day of the trial of Ms Noble and Mr Paul Hopkins for the murder of Mr Benson in Ballymun, Dublin, in May 2000.
Questioned by Mr Tom O'Connell SC, prosecuting, the witness said she heard screams coming from the direction of Mr Benson's flat at around 3 a.m. on the morning of the killing.
She heard someone who she believed was Mr Benson say: "For God's sake" or "for f---'s sake". The witness told the court she then saw smoke and fire coming from the flat. She phoned the emergency services and Ms Noble "to tell her the flat was on fire".
Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, defending Mr Hopkins, asked if the witness was aware that Ms Noble had secured a barring order against Mr Benson.
Yes, she replied. "She [Ms Noble] wanted to get out" because of the violence. Ms Keely recalled one such incident when Ms Noble ran into her [the witness's] flat, pursued by Mr Benson.
"He ran out after her into my bedroom . . . He was killing her." Ms Keely said she and her sister saw Mr Benson beating and kicking Ms Noble when she was on the ground.
She said the first time she met Ms Noble she noticed her hand was badly swollen. "She [Ms Noble] said she did not get up to make Derek's breakfast that morning and he hit her with a plank." Asked if she knew if the deceased, a drug-user, was also dealing drugs, Ms Keely said he had told her "he was doing a little bit".
The State's case is that Ms Noble, a mother of one from Ballymun, contracted Mr Hopkins for between £3,000 and £5,000 to murder Mr Benson. The prosecution claims she paid him £200 "up front", with the balance to be paid after the murder.
At the time of the killing he was working as a doorman in a pub in Drumcondra. The jury heard that Mr Benson suffered 25 stab wounds inflicted with a sword and 60 "cuts or incised wounds". In seven stab wounds to the trunk, the sword went through the body completely.
Ms Noble (38), of Knowth Court, Ballymun, and Mr Hopkins (24), Sillogue Road, Ballymun, have both pleaded not guilty to murder.