Woman tells court she 'finished' with murder victim
The woman at the centre of a love triangle which allegedly led to the murder of her ex-lover has said she “finished” with the deceased two days before the fatal stabbing, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Ms Anita Dunne said her relationship with the deceased was “too much, too quick, too soon”.
Mr Mark McCann (aged 32) of Virginia Drive, Finglas denies murdering Mr Robert Rogers (aged 26) of Berryfield Road, Finglas on January 12, 2002 at 82 Cappagh Avenue, Finglas.
The court has heard the fatal stabbing arose out of a rivalry between two men for the affections of one woman, Ms Anita Dunne.
Ms Dunne told the jury of six men and six women that after she split with her partner of ten years in 2000, she started going out with the accused.
The mother-of-five told the court that before she got her house at Cappagh Avenue, she stayed with Mr McCann at his house as she “had no where to go”.
Ms Dunne told the jury that after she moved into her corporation house, the accused stayed with her during the week and would leave at the weekends when her children would come to stay.
“We were going out for five or six months before Robert Rogers arrived on the scene,” Ms Dunne told the court.
The mother-of-five said she got together with Mr Rogers after they “kissed on a bouncing castle” at a children’s party.
A day after they kissed, Ms Dunne told the jury, Mr Rogers moved into number 82 Cappagh Avenue, Finglas.
Ms Dunne said she was “with Robert Rogers about six weeks”.
The deceased, she said, “wanted a full on relationship and I wasn’t able for it”.
Mr Rogers, she said, told lies, saying the accused “had the virus”, referring to HIV.
On the night before the fatal stabbing, Ms Dunne told the jury, her sister Edel Dunne who has since died, rang the accused because he owed her E20.
Mr McCann arrived at 82 Cappagh Avenue sometime after midnight with a bag of “Dutch Gold” cans of lager.
Ms Dunne said when the accused arrived, Alan McCann, a brother of the accused and two babysitters were in the house along with her sister Edel and her young baby daughter.
Ms Dunne said she drank some “Southern Comfort” and the accused drank “Dutch Gold”.
As a result of the medication Ms Dunne was on, mixed with alcohol, she said she “blacked out”.
The next thing she remembered, Ms Dunne told the court, was a “policeman standing over” her and “Robbie slumped in a chair”.
The accused “was gone when I woke up”, she said.
Today, the State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the trial Mr Rogers was stabbed five times with the fatal wound inflicted to the back of his chest damaging the major vessel, the aorta.
Dr Cassidy said the deceased’s left lung had collapsed due to a stab wound and the sac around the heart had been pierced.
The deceased, Dr Cassidy said, suffered “massive blood loss” and there was “bleeding in the internal cavity”.
There were defensive wounds to the hands including cuts across the palms, Dr Cassidy said.
The State Pathologist was shown a 21-inch kitchen knife in court yesterday said “that knife could have caused all the knife injuries”.
The toxicology report Dr Cassidy said were negative for alcohol and drugs but there was evidence that the deceased had used cannabis before his death.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court and is expected to last a week.
