Deep stab wounds caused man’s death

A MAN stabbed to death suffered three “deeply penetrating wounds”, two of them seven inches deep, a court heard yesterday.

State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the murder trial that the victim, Christy Cawley, also had “defence-type injuries” on his hands, consistent with a struggle.

Mr Cawley, 33, and a father-of-six, from Tyrone Place, Inchicore, in Dublin’s south inner city, died on October 29, 2006.

Two brothers, Warren and Jeffrey Dumbrell, of Emmet Road, Inchicore, have pleaded not guilty to his murder outside Tyrone Place flats that evening.

Giving evidence before Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court, Dr Cassidy said the victim suffered six stab wounds.

She said death was primarily due to a knife wound to the left thigh and contributory wounds to the back and the right thigh.

The wound to the left thigh cut two large blood vessels, including an artery, and the tip of the knife protruded through the front of the left thigh. This wound was seven inches deep.

She said the knife wound to the back was four inches deep and injured a kidney and liver. The knife wound to the right thigh was seven and a quarter inches deep.

She told Paul Burns, prosecuting, that Mr Cawley had cuts to his hands, which were “defence-type injuries, consistent with a struggle”.

Janice Cawley, a 15-year-old daughter of the deceased, told the court she was with her dad on wasteground outside Tyrone Place when Warren and Jeffrey Dumbrell approached them.

Janice, who was 13 at the time, said her dad ran into the flats before falling at the stairwell. She said the two men chased him and a knife slipped out from a sleeve of one of their jackets.

She agreed with Brendan Nix, defending Jeffrey Dumbrell, that she knew there was going to be trouble between her father and Tommy Dumbrell at the wasteground that evening. But she denied suggestions her dad pulled the knife.

Lauren Molloy, who was 11 at the time, said she was with Janice when she collapsed at the wasteground.

She said Janice was screaming “me da, me da” and as she was saying that the two men who had been hitting her father walked past and one of them said “something like ‘your dad’s gone now’”.

Mr Nix pointed out that in her sworn and signed statement to gardaí she said that one of the men laughed at Janice and repeated back to her “me da, me da”. Ms Molloy said she did not say that to gardaí.

He asked her why, when she read the statement back, did she not correct it. She said she couldn’t remember and said she was confused.

Mr Nix suggested her mind was “jumbled up” now. Ms Molloy agreed with Mr Burns that she had difficulties with reading.

The trial continues.