Witness: Fatal assault was 'beyond terrifying'
An eye witness in the case of a man who died after being kicked and beaten for two hours, has told his murder trial that she cried herself to sleep after witnessing the “beyond terrifying” assault.
Breaking down as she gave evidence at the Central Criminal Court, Sherry Conlon said she was “petrified” after she saw around four teenagers kicking Darren McKeown as he lay on the ground, in the Rowan Heights estate, Drogheda in December 2007.
She described how he struggled to his feet afterwards, and as he tried to walk away, one of the teenagers ran back and pushed him full force so that he fell, hitting his head on the concrete.
Ms Conlon said she could hear the impact, even though she was standing inside her sitting room, around 60 yards away.
Her mother, Eileen O'Rourke, wept as she told the jury she could still hear the sound of Mr McKeown's head hitting the ground.
Mr McKeown's relatives and members of the jury became visibly upset during the two witness's accounts in the trial of Louise Wall (aged 21) and Michael Cruise (aged 19).
They have both denied Mr McKeown's murder.
Wall, of Cranmore, Clogherhead, and Cruise, of Donore Avenue, Ballsgrove, Drogheda also deny a second count of violent disorder on dates between Christmas and Stephen's Day, 2007.
The prosecution argues that the case is one of alleged joint enterprise.
Garda witnesses have told the trial that seven people in all admitted to assaulting Mr McKeown that night. The attack began after he was seen hitting a woman at the house party, and her teenage son and his friends planned to give him a beating.
Mr McKeown was kicked and punched in the kitchen, then he was followed out onto a green area where the youths kicked him in the head as he lay on the ground.
Ms Conlon described how the teenagers left him there unmoving, and then she saw Mr McKeown struggle to his feet. She heard one of the teenagers shout something about his mother, and then shouting “if you get up, I'll put you down again”.
The jury has heard that this teenager is one of three other people charged with violent disorder in the district courts.
Ms Conlon saw him run over and push Mr McKeown, who's head hit the ground full force. He got to his feet a few minutes later, but fell and smashed his head on the ground again. After this, Ms Conlon said she thought he was dead as she didn't think he could have survived what happened.
She turned off the light and went to bed because she was afraid she would be attacked if anyone knew she'd witnessed the incident.
In her interviews with Gardaí, Wall admitted to kicking Mr McKeown in the head on the green, and in the driveway of the house. She said she also stamped on his head and chest, and hit him in the head with a glass ashtray. Cruise admitted to kicking the deceased two to three times in the head.
In his evidence, deputy state pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, said the cause of death was a severe head injury. He said Mr McKeown's brain was bruised and swollen, his scalp was bruised, and he had a broken jaw.
Under cross-examination by Wall's defence lawyer, Mr Brendan Grehan SC, Dr Curtis said that Mr McKeown's head hitting off the ground was the “most likely” cause of death.
He couldn't say however whether the fatal injury was due to Mr McKeown's “unassisted fall” or the fall after he was pushed.
The trial resumes in the morning.
