The 13-year-old son of alleged murder victim Michael Faulkner told the Central Criminal Court of the moment he allegedly watched Michael McCarthy attack his father.
Patrick Faulkner, who was 11 years old at the time of the incident, gave evidence by video link at the trial yesterday.
Mr McCarthy (24), Ballyspillane, Killarney, Co Kerry, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Faulkner on August 23rd, 2004, at Mitchell's Crescent, where Mr Faulkner lived.
Yesterday Patrick told the court he spent the night of his father's murder walking around the area in Tralee known as "The Bazaar" with three friends.
"I was running . . . I crossed the road and I saw my dad with his hands on the bonnet of a car. I said to him, 'Come on, you're coming home'. He took his hands off the bonnet and walked home," he said.
The boy then explained how he and his father had walked towards Mitchell's Crescent.
"When I got in home my dad told me to go in home. I stayed watching him at the gate - I went in home and had a bowl of Weetabix . . . I went outside to see what was happening," he added.
The boy said he had stayed back at the general area surrounding his home but had then spotted a wine-coloured van passing by.
"I saw Michael McCarthy at the back of the van - he went and pulled out a slash hook in his right hand and threw it at my father on his left hand side.
"My father caught it and he took it off him - my father caught it with both hands," he added.
Patrick then said that his father hit the front window of the van with the slash hook.
"Francie McCarthy [ another man] came up behind him - Francie McCarthy had something in his left hand. He hit him [ Michael Faulkner] with something to the side of the jaw - my dad fell back on his back.
"Michael McCarthy hit him two to three times with the slash hook. It fell out of my father's hands. He hit him into the stomach," he said.
When asked by John Edwards SC, prosecuting, what part of the slash hook struck the victim the boy replied "the pointy part".
"Francie was trying to hold him back - he said 'Stop, he had enough'," added Patrick.
Then Michael McCarthy left in the van driving off in the direction of an area known as Ballymun.
"I ran for help - he was lying on the ground. I ran in home," he added.
Mr Edwards asked Patrick Faulkner if he had heard Michael McCarthy saying anything at the scene.
Patrick replied: "'Well Michael Faulkner', as he was trying to hit him with it."
During cross-examination by defence barrister Anthony Sammon, Mr Sammon put it to the young boy that he was mistaken in what he had seen.
Patrick Faulkner replied: "It was right, I think."
Earlier, pathologist Margaret Bolster told the court Michael Faulkner died from asphyxia relating to "a mechanical interference with breathing".
The trial continues before Judge Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork today.