Further evidence heard in double murder trial
The co-accused in a double murder trial told detectives he was no rat and would not name the person who stabbed two Polish men in the heads with a screw driver.
Seán Keogh (aged 21) of Vincent Street West, Inchicore has pleaded not guilty to murdering the mechanics outside their home on Benbulben Road, Drimnagh. He is one of two men on trial for the crime and is being tried under the joint enterprise law.
David Curran (aged 19) of Lissadel Green, Drimnagh has pleaded not guilty to murdering Pawel Kalite (aged 28) and Marius Szwajkos (aged 27) but guilty to their manslaughter on February 23, 2008.
Detective Garda William Ryan told the Central Criminal Court that Mr Keogh was arrested two days after the stabbings.
“I didn’t do anything. I’ve nothing to hide,” he said, “I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t stab anyone.”
He admitted being at the scene but insisted that someone else was the assailant.
“Catch the right person. That’s how you’ll believe me,” he said. “I don’t know who did it.”
Mr Keogh was told that a teenaged girl had said he was the stabber.
“She was lying. Ask her again,” he said. “I didn’t do any murders.”
He suggested that the girl was probably covering for someone else.
“I know I didn’t do it,” he said. “It wasn’t me. God’s honest truth.”
He was asked why he wouldn’t help gardaí and help himself by naming the stabber.
“I’m no rat,” he replied.
He later agreed to recount his part in the fight, without naming anyone else.
“Someone got a phone call that there was a fight outside the chipper,” he explained.
“One of my mates asked me to come up and help him,” he continued. “We ran up and the fight broke out again at the garden. A man got stabbed. I kicked him in the head.”
He confirmed that it was after he had been stabbed and was lying down that he kicked this man in his face.
“I wasn’t thinking,” he said when asked if he didn’t think the man had enough after being stabbed.
“I got a fright,” he said of seeing his mate stab the man, and agreed that he was upset afterwards, when he ran off and burned his runners at a block of flats.
“I washed my bottoms,” he said of the tracksuit he was wearing, adding that there wasn’t much blood on them. “There was a good bit on my runners.”
He said the first time he saw the screwdriver was when the man was being stabbed.
“It wasn’t planned,” he said.
He agreed that driving a screwdriver through a skull would ‘probably’ kill a person.
“It would cause damage,” he said.
He described what happened as ‘foolish’ and agreed that it was women who got them into such hassle. He said he didn’t expect to be blamed.
“Are you willing to take the rap for someone else?” he was asked.
“I’m not naming any names,” he replied.
“All I did was give your man one boot. That’s all and then I legged it,” he said. “I didn’t have a screw driver.”
He was asked if he had any sympathy for the family of the deceased. “Yeah I’m sorry for what happened,” he said. “I told the truth on my part.”
His co-accused, David Curran, now admits that he was the only person who stabbed the victims.
However when arrested, he named Mr Keogh as the stabber.
The statement was read out of Vicky McKeever, who was at St Michael’s Estate, Inchicore on the evening of the stabbing.
“I saw Seán Keogh coming through the railing beside the site. He was all over the place, crying and sweating,” she said, explaining that he sat down with his face in his hands and spoke to her.
“He said: ‘Vicky. You would not believe what I’m after doing. I’m after making a mistake.’ I walked past him,” she recalled.
Forensic scientist Dr Thomas Hannigan said he found a partial and possible shoe print, apparently made in blood, on the shirt of Marius Szwajkos.
He examined a number of pairs of runners, including a burnt runner, but could not make a match. However he could not exclude the burnt runner as the source of the print because the full pattern was not available.
He agreed with Patrick Gageby SC, defending Seán Keogh, that he did not receive any of David Curran’s runners for the analysis.
The jury heard that Mr Curran had addiction problems at the time he killed the men.
Jimmy Norman, manager of Ciall drug project for young people, told his barrister, Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, that the teenager referred himself to the project in November 2006.
“Initially his substances were alcohol, cannabis and cocaine,” he said, explaining that he was treated for this until February 2007. He re-presented again in April 2007 with drug problems and was treated for four or five weeks.
“He referred himself again on January 21, 2008. He stated he’d been using benzodiazepines,” said Mr Norman, explaining that these were like tranquilisers.
Mr Norman confirmed that Mr Curran showed up for a counselling session the day before the stabbings but was not seen. Mr O Lideadha suggested that this was because he had been stabbed the night before.
“The counsellor said he couldn’t do the session,” said Mr Norman.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and a jury of eight women and four men.
