Man accused of murdering brother was provoked, court hears
The defence barrister for a Waterford man on trial for the murder of his younger brother has said he has never seen a case with stronger evidence of provocation.
John O’Kelly, SC, was delivering his closing speech to the Central Criminal Court in the trial of 34-year-old Keith Doyle of Priory Lawn, Ballybeg.
Mr Doyle has pleaded not guilty to murdering Gary Doyle (aged 28) on January 1, 2003. The single father-of-one died from stab wounds at Waterford Hospital that New Year’s Morning after fighting with the accused near their homes.
Mr O’Kelly reminded the jury that before the fight, his client was being taunted with blinding by his brother, the very person who had taken out one of his eyes four years earlier.
"He was also being taunted in the most abusive terms about his girlfriend. Very few of us could sit calmly and listen to that. Who wouldn’t have snapped?" he asked.
The defence pointed to the speed with which everything happened as further supporting the claim that the accused was out of control. In his interviews with gardaí, Mr Doyle had said something clicked and that he was in a blind rage.
Mr O’Kelly said that for the Doyle family, it was the worst nightmare. Mrs Doyle had lost one son, and now, by irony, stood to lose another.
In summing up the prosecution’s case, Justin Dillon SC, said Gary Doyle’s destruction of his brother’s eye had to be put in to context. It had happened four years earlier, he pointed out.
Mr Dillon reminded the jury that the two brothers were always fighting, that this was how they and their friends resolved their differences. On the morning after a fight, the digs thrown the previous night would usually be forgotten. However, in this case, Keith Doyle told gardaí that the fight four years earlier had caused all the trouble since then.
The prosecution said that when the deceased was taunting his brother, the accused was inside and protected from any immediate danger, but decided to go out and confront his sibling.
"He chose to go out with a baseball bat," said Mr Dillon. "Keith Doyle accepts he was the only person in the fight with Gary."
The court heard that after the initial fight outside the accused’s door, the Gary Doyle ran away and his older brother went back into his own house.
"Did he go back to get a sharp instrument? We know he had one when he caught up with his brother," said Mr Dillon. This, said the prosecution, was a further deliberate action against the deceased.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of seven women and five men.
