Chinese man gives evidence at murder trial
A former Chinese "anti-violence" policeman denied today he was provoked into picking a fight with two men who shouted racist abuse at him and his Vietnamese friend as they left a nightclub in Dublin city centre two years ago.
Dong Wei, aged 35, denied that he had retaliated by punching and kicking two assailants after they had called him and a friend "Chinese w**kers": “I did not hit anybody, because I was attacked suddenly and my left eye got injured. I had never experienced anything like that” he said.
He said he could not remember hearing either of the two attackers calling him abusive names or that one of them said “if you want to take a piss find a f**king toilet”.
“I really don’t remember” he told defence counsel for Mr Noel O’Flaherty, Mr Brendan Grehan SC. “Did you make some comment back?” asked Mr Grehan. “I don’t remember” he replied.
“We are living in Ireland. We have come across many Irish people using abusive words towards us on a daily basis. I do not know why. We are here in this country, we are global citizens” said Mr Wei.
“If every day we picked a fight with the people who are using abusive words towards us, how many would we have?” he added.
Mr Wei was describing the little he recalled of an assault which resulted in the death of his friend Mr Ly Minh Luong and left his left eye still damaged.
He is a key prosecution witness in the murder trial of two doormen, James Harmerk, aged 26, originally from Stafford, England and Noel O'Flaherty, aged 33, of McCormack Gardens, Sutton, Co Dublin.
They are pleading not guilty to the murder of Ly Minh Luong, aged 50, of Kilmartin Gardens, Tallaght, Co Dublin at Fownes St Upper, Temple bar, Dublin on August 19, 2002.
The accused also deny a charge of assaulting Mr Wei causing him serious harm on Fownes St Upper in the early hours of Friday August 16, 2002.
Under Irish law both men could only be charged with the murder of Mr Luong on the day he died – August 19, 2002 - three days after the attack in Temple Bar.
Speaking through court interpreter, Ms Crystal Li, Mr Wei said he could only identify his attackers as a “taller and a shorter man” because of the injury to his eye at the start of the assault.: “I could barely see anything. My face was covered in blood.
"I was hit and I landed on the ground. I tried to get up. I got a kick on my left chest, everything happened so fast," he said.
“My left eye was injured. Until today my left eye still doesn’t function as good as my right eye”. He said he was bleeding from his “nose, mouth, my eye and my eyebrow”.
“When I was beaten up, Mr Luong was beaten up as well. Mr Luong was already on the ground” said Mr Wei. “I woke up the following morning, I was in hospital”.
“I just remember the shorter man, he was shouting and screaming at me in English and he fought with me” he said.
“I remember two men punched me but the shorter man punched me more” he added. Mr Wei said he only remembered one kick to the left side of his chest: “I didn’t get up then”.
Vietnamese man Mr Luong was taken to St James Hospital where he died from brain injury four days later.
A native of China, Mr Wei told Mr Grehan, defending, that he arrived in Ireland to study English in January 1999.
He had spent four years as an “anti-violence policeman” in China where his duties involved “dealing with important events in the society and dealing with criminals”.
“Were you good at your job?” asked Mr Grehan. “Very good” Mr Wei replied. “We only dealt with emergencies and important events”.
He later spent nine years as an “international seaman" sailing around the world before moving to Ireland.
He worked for the deceased as a cook in his Chinese take-away in Ballymun where the two became friends.
Taxi-driver Thomas Greenhalgh also testified today that he saw a man lying down on the ground at Fownes St Upper while he was driving in the area on August 16, 2002.
"The first thing I saw was the gentleman lying face down on the ground. He got up on all fours, nearly made it and collapsed back down again. The strange thing was there was a brown shoe with a beige stripe lying beside his head," said Mr Greenhalgh.
He said he saw “a small Asian man and a tall European man up on the footpath”. “The taller man had hold of the Asian man and gave him one dig [with his] right fist, just square on the face” said Mr Greenhalgh.
He described the tall man as “about 6 ft 2”/3” with a tight hair cut” and said his accent “wasn’t a Dublin accent”.
He told Mr Tom O’Connell, SC, prosecuting, that “The Asian man had a lot of blood on him, all down his front and down his face.”
He said he saw the smaller European man look back at the Asian still standing and say “if you want to take a piss find a fucking toilet”.
He said he saw the two European men walk off down Fownes St Upper after that.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Henry Abbott next week.
