Murder accused 'admitted stabbing victim three times'
One of the men on trial for murdering a young man in the Mahon area of Cork last year told detectives hours later that he just wanted to curl up and die and later he admitted stabbing the victim three times, it emerged today.
Jason Quinlan, (aged 29), of 11 Loughmahon Drive, Mahon, Cork, and John Brett,(aged 25), of 26A Leitrim Street, Cork, both deny murdering Brian McKee, (aged 24), at Ballinure Avenue, Mahon, Cork, on August 25 2007, at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.
When detectives told Quinlan that McKee had died, the accused broke down crying and said three times, “He can’t be dead.”
Initially he denied assaulting Mr McKee but later said, “I don’t know where I stabbed him, I was kind of on the floor as well… I didn’t do enough to kill him.”
“I just want to curl up and die. To tell you the truth my head is all over the place. I haven’t got a clue what I’m going on about,” Quinlan said and added he was not the one who started it and he was not the one who finished it.
Later when asked by Detective Garda John McDonagh if he accepted responsibility for causing some of the injuries, he replied, “Yeah.” At another stage he said in relation to stabbing Brian McKee, “It could have been at least three, no more than three.”
He said the knife he used was one that Brian McKee dropped when he fell and that he (Quinlan) did not have a knife of his own. Later on he said, “I don’t know if someone could have handed me a knife… I probably did run up the road after him with a knife.”
“What pushed you to do it?” Inspector Declan O’Sullivan asked. Quinlan replied, “He hit me with something. I went after him, I didn’t go after him to stab him.”
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney and jury.
