Murder accused very sorry for part in fight, court hears
A man accused of murder said he was "very sorry" to the family of the deceased for "the fight that unfortunately led to their father's death", the trial of two men accused of murdering a Chinese man heard today at the Central Criminal Court.
James Harmer, aged 27, of the Abbey Court Hostel, Bachelors Walk, Dublin, and Noel O'Flaherty, aged 34, of McCormack Gardens, Baldoyle, Co Dublin, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ly Minh Luong, aged 50, at Temple Bar, Dublin on August 19, 2002.
The two have also pleaded not guilty to assault causing harm to Wei Dong, aged 36, at Temple Bar, Dublin on August 16, 2002.
The accused O'Flaherty told the court that before the incident, he had just returned from the UK, where he had worked for two years, and was living at the Abbey Court Hostel so he wouldn't "annoy everybody" at home in Baldoyle.
The middle child of four siblings, he said he had been working as a concierge and hotel porter and had taken up a job as a doorman.
He was out that night with his co-accused, Harmer, an acquaintance of his from the hostel, and another friend who went home early.
O'Flaherty, who is 6ft 1in, said he'd had nine to 10 pints and two to three shorts to drink that night. "I was drunk. I wouldn't say I was falling-down, steaming drunk. But I was drunk," he said.
He said he was "shocked" the next morning when gardaí told him Mr Luong was "in a really bad way".
"I didn't think the fight was that serious," he said. The court has heard that he believed the deceased and the injured man, Mr Dong, were both up when he left the scene with Harmer.
"What contact have you had with Harmer since the incident?" Mr Brendan Grehan SC, O'Flaherty's counsel, asked him.
"None," he replied.
Asked if he had anything he would like to say to the dead man's family, O'Flaherty replied: "To Mr Luong's family I'd like to say that on my part of the fight that unfortunately led to their father's death, I am very sorry."
He added that he would "like to apologise" to the hurt caused to Mr Dong, who suffered permanent damage to one of his eyes.
"Is there anything else you could have done for this not to happen?" Mr Grehan asked.
"Maybe just walked away. Or to stop James," O'Flaherty said.
Cross-examined by prosecution, O'Flaherty described the fight: "Again, it was four people in close proximity. We were literally on top of each other. I was trying to pull James away, Mr Dong was trying to pull Mr Luong away."
He reiterated that he was trying to "stop James" and denied coming back to the fight: "I never chose to rejoin the fight," O'Flaherty said.
"I suggest to you that you could have quite easily walked away but chose to stay in this quite vicious attack?" Mr Patrick McGrath BL, prosecuting, said.
"Yes, unfortunately, I did." O'Flaherty said.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Butler.
