An Irishman was wrongly accused of a savage brothel killing after a thief stole his running shoes and left one of them at the murder scene, an Australian court was told yesterday.
Mr Gerard Gallagher (25), a builder from Enniscrone, Co Sligo, was the "tragic victim of coincidence", said his barrister, Mr Robert Greenwood. Mr Gallagher's runners were stolen from outside his home and worn by the murderer who entered the brothel through a window and stabbed Mateo Mamaril 41 times, he said.
Mr Gallagher denies murdering Mr Mamaril (30), who lived in the brothel at the Sydney suburb Bondi Beach, but he admits he regularly paid the victim's sister Mely for sex.
Mr Greenwood told the jury: "You might think a nightmare is exactly what Gerard Gallagher has been through. This is a person who finds himself the tragic victim of circumstance."
He reminded the jury that Mr Gallagher's flatmate, Dubliner Mr Kieran Quinn (25), had testified that his friend complained 10 days before the murder that his runners had been stolen from outside their house. Mr Greenwood said a woman who heard screaming in the brothel around the time of the killing knew who the murderer was.
Yesterday prosecutors said neighbours heard Mr Mamaril scream as he was attacked early on May 30th, 1999, and wrongly thought it was a woman.
Mr Greenwood, however, insisted the witnesses had got it right. "There is a female person who either has or has not been called who can shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Mamaril."
Mr Gallagher, who has been in custody for 15 months, faces life in prison if convicted of murder at Darlinghurst Supreme Court.
Judge Robert Hume halted yesterday's proceedings three times after a male juror kept falling asleep. A second juror also fell asleep briefly and Judge Hume ordered a recess.
A verdict is expected later this week.