A murder trial witness yesterday denied he had "changed his story" since last week or that he had given a different account to gardai at the time of the killing.
In the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, Mr Patrick Joseph McGreene (29), with addresses at Corrib Park and St Mary's Road, Galway, has denied the murder of his uncle Mr Tom Clisham (53), between November 24th and December 4th, 1997, at Inveran, Co Galway.
In his third day in the witness box, Mr Michael Folan told Mr John Rogers SC, defending, that on November 24th, 1997, he had four or five pints and then another five or six pints in a hotel and then in a pub in Eyre Square, Galway. He had no food that day.
Mr Folan said he met Mr McGreene in the pub at about 6 p.m. or 7 p.m, though "it might have been later, I don't know, it might have been seven or eight o'clock". He denied he had changed the times since his evidence last week because he knew it was not what he had told the Garda. He had not invited Mr McGreene to Mr Clisham's house. "I didn't bring him. He wanted to go himself."
It was "not correct" that he had told Mr McGreene of differences between Mr Clisham and another man named in court, he said, neither had he produced a knife and shown it to Mr McGreene, as Mr Rogers suggested.
Mr Folan said a previous witness, Mr Morgan O Maille, had not been in Mr Clisham's house when he and Mr McGreene took a taxi there later on November 24th.
"It could have happened" that he, Mr McGreene and Mr Clish am drank from cups as well as glasses, he said. Mr Rogers put it to him that the cups were needed because there were other people there. There was no one there except the three of them. It was "not true at all" that he had been "fomenting a row" that night between Mr Clisham and the man named in court. "The only person" who had been "winding up" Mr Clisham about his land was the accused man. Mr Folan said there was no discussion about a religious picture before Mr McGreene took it down from the wall and threw it outside, breaking it. Mr Rogers suggested there had been a long discussion about it being a Mormon picture. "I didn't hear them say that," the witness said.
He was not changing his story since his evidence last Thursday that they drank more whiskey after Mr McGreene broke the picture. The disturbance began at around 3.30 a.m. or 3.45 a.m., he said. The picture was thrown out "10 minutes, maybe five minutes" before the fighting. It hadn't been thrown out at 2 a.m., as Mr Rogers understood him to have said in his evidence last week.
Mr Rogers said he had also told Garda O'Connor on December 8th, 1997, that the picture was thrown out at about 2 a.m.
Mr Folan denied he was changing his story about the times because something happened in the house between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. for which he could not account. "I am not, I am telling the plain truth," he told the jury.
After the assault on Mr Clish am, Mr McGreene had tied him with the bonds and then taken off his own trousers and underpants, he said. Mr Rogers put it to him that he had told gardai Mr McGreene had removed his pants and lain down beside Mr Clisham before using the bonds.
Mr McGreene could have had the bonds in his pocket, Mr Folan said. "I went out to go to the toilet and I went home at that time." He agreed he had not told gardai he had gone to the toilet and never mentioned it before yesterday. He went to the toilet when he was going home at 4 a.m., he said.
He agreed that "maybe" he had a knife in his pocket that night. He carried it to cut bales of hay. "Even if I had it in Tom Clisham's house, I wasn't going to do anything with it," he said. He and Mr Clisham were "like brothers".
"Did you use the knife to cut up a bit of cloth to tie up Tom Clisham?" Mr Rogers asked. "I never laid my hands on the tablecloth," Mr Folan replied. His hands were "as clean as they are today".
Mr Folan said he could not re member telling Garda Pat O'Connor in a statement he signed on December 8th, 1997, that "P.J. started jabbing Tom in the chest with the same broken bottle", nor did he remember saying "and after that he started jumping on him". He told Garda O'Connor "the way he died, that he was stabbed four times in the neck with the bottle and that was the way he was killed". Mr Rogers put it to him that he had never mentioned to gardai that he believed Mr McGreene was smoking drugs or that he had been threatened by him until December 16th, 1997, though he had made three statements to gardai before that date. Mr Folan said he could not remember the dates. He repeatedly told Mr Rogers that the statement he had made to Garda O'Connor was "correct".
He denied he alleged that Mr McGreene was talking about his uncle's land in the pub because he had reflected on events at the cottage and wanted to present a motive so that suspicion would be cast on Mr McGreene.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Cyril Kelly.