Accused pleads not guilty to 2002 pub murder
A 38-year-old Dublin man has pleaded not guilty to murder three years ago in a city centre pub at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr James (Seamus) Morgan of Lower Mount Pleasant Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin 6 denies the murder of Mr James Hand (aged 29) of Mountjoy Square, Dublin 7 on or between the August 22 and September 5, 2002 both dates inclusive at ‘The Meeting Pint’ public house on Dorset Street Upper.
It is the prosecution’s case that the deceased was stabbed on August 22, 2002 and died two weeks later in hospital.
The deceased, Mr Patrick J McCarthy SC said in his opening speech, "suffered six stab wounds, one of which was fatal". The stab wounds inflicted on August 22, the prosecuting counsel said, "caused the death of the deceased on September 5, 2002. His death is attributable to the knife wounds he received in the public house".
Prosecuting counsel said the accused man had been drinking in a neighbouring public house, ‘The Waxie Dargle’ in the hours before the incident. He then went to ‘The Meeting Pint’ public house on Dorset Street where he spoke to bar girl, Ms Amanda Kavanagh who was serving behind the bar.
Mr McCarthy SC said the accused man allegedly told Ms Kavanagh that he had been barred from the pub and she asked him to leave. The prosecution alleges that a conversation took place between Ms Kavanagh and her uncle, the deceased man who had entered the pub.
"Words were had between the accused and the deceased", Mr McCarthy SC told the court. "It appears a struggle developed" in which the deceased was stabbed.
Both the deceased and the accused were later taken to hospital by ambulance, prosecuting counsel told the court.
Ms Kavanagh, niece of the deceased man, yesterday told the court that she was working in ‘The Meeing Pint’ public house on her summer holidays before she entered fifth year in secondary school. On the evening of the fatal incident, Ms Kavanagh began work at 6pm working alongside her cousin, Donna Hand. Ms Kavanagh said under cross-examination by Mr George Birmingham SC that security staff did not start work until 8pm at the pub.
The accused entered the ‘The Meeting Pint’ at around 6.30pm, Ms Kavangh told the court. "He said he was having a bad day and was in a bad mood," Ms Kavanagh said. The accused also allegedly told the bar-girl that he was having family problems, "saying something about his daughter", she told the court.
Under cross-examination, Ms Kavanagh agreed that the accused man was in an agitated state and was acting strangely.
The accused man, Ms Kavanagh told the court, said he had been barred from the pub. "So, I said to him that he should go", Ms Kavanagh told the court.
The accused man allegedly left the pub and then came back on at least three occasions.
Each time the accused man came back into the pub, Ms Kavanagh said under cross-examination, he was acting strangely, "he said, he didn’t want to get me into trouble".
When the accused had left the pub on one occasion, Ms Kavanagh told the court her uncle, the deceased, entered the pub and asked her to give him a description of the man who had been bothering her. Her uncle, she told the court "would have told him to leave".
Before 8pm, Ms Kavanagh told the court that she left the pub to see her mother in ‘The Waxie Dargle’ pub. A few minutes later when she returned to ‘The Meeting Pint’ pub she found her uncle had been injured.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Carney.
