Jury shown footage of brutal stabbing
A jury was shown video footage today of the brutal slaying of a 27-year-old Limerick man who died after he was stabbed 11 times.
Evidence of the CCTV footage was shown to the jury in the Central Criminal Court on the second day of the murder trial of 31 year-old Johnny 'Taz' McNamara.
Mr McNamara of Craeval Park, Moyross, has pleaded not guilty to murdering John O'Sullivan at Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick on August 13, 2001.
The prosecution alleges that the events - which led to the victim's death - were captured on a camera operated from the control room of a nearby community centre.
It was one of 16 such security cameras which had been mounted on 50 metre-high poles around the Moyross estate.
The accused was shown chasing John O'Sullivan - on the night in question - armed with what appeared to have been a knife, the prosecution alleged.
Further stills from the video footage showed one of the men falling to the ground and the other standing over him with a knife still in his hand.
Detective Sergeant Jim Ryan of Mayorstone garda station gave evidence that on first viewing the CCTV footage he recognised the man with the knife as Johnny McNamara.
Det Sgt Ryan told the court that another still showed the accused walking back towards his house with a knife in his left hand and his right arm raised in a "clenched-fist type salute".
The jury also heard evidence from Garda Darragh McGuire who told the court that he was the first garda to arrive at the scene in Pineview Gardens.
Garda McGuire found a man lying motionless on the ground - bleeding heavily - with wounds to his throat, chest, back and stomach.
The victim was later identified at Limerick Regional Hospital as John O'Sullivan of Craeval Park, Moyross.
During a planned search of a house at 5 Craeval Park on the morning of August 13, 2001 gardaí recovered a steel silver knife concealed in a white sock in an outside shed, the court heard.
Johnny McNamara was arrested later the same day at 42 Hartigan Villas, Moyross, and taken to Henry Street garda station.
When he was charged with murder, the accused replied "I did not mean to kill him," the court heard.
Giving evidence of the post-mortem examination, the Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy said that John O'Sullivan had suffered a total of 11 stab wounds.
The wounds were found on the head, neck, chest, shoulder, arm and back.
Dr Cassidy told the jury at the Central Criminal Court that the most serious of the injuries was a wound to the chest which had penetrated his stomach and liver and sliced his aorta in two.
Another shallow wound which ran across the front of his neck exposing his Adam's Apple was a superficial injury, she observed.
The fatal chest wound had led to major blood loss and she concluded that death was caused by haemorraging and shock, the court heard.
The murder trial is expected to last for the rest of the week at the Central Criminal Court, currently sitting in Limerick.
This is the first time in the history of the State that a murder trial has taken place outside the capital.
