Accused ‘didn’t mean to kill’ stabbing victim

A MAN accused of murder said he did not mean to kill or seriously injure another man when he stabbed him six times.

Jeffrey Dumbrell, and his brother Warren, are charged with murdering Christy Cawley outside his home at Tyrone Place flats complex in Inchicore, Dublin, on October 29, 2006.

The Central Criminal Court has heard that Mr Cawley, 33, died from multiple knife injuries and that he died in front of his wife and three of their children, one aged just five.

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the court three of the six stab wounds were “deeply penetrating” and that two of them were seven inches deep.

Jeffrey, aged 28, and Warren, aged 34, both of Emmet Road, Inchicore, have pleaded not guilty to murder. Warren is also charged with threatening to kill Mr Cawley’s wife, Janet, on the same occasion.

Giving evidence yesterday, Jeffrey said he and his brother had gone to wasteground, known as the field, outside Tyrone Place on the evening of October 29 as their brother Tommy had arranged to have a fight with Mr Cawley there.

Jeffrey said when they got there, Mr Cawley pulled a knife and said: “I’ll give you a fight, if you want a fight.”

He said Mr Cawley went for Warren, who took out a hurley from behind his back. He said Mr Cawley then ran and they chased after him.

Asked by prosecution counsel, Paul Burns SC, why they chased after him, Jeffrey said: “We wanted to sort it out, by talking.” He rejected suggestions by Mr Burns they had gone to kill him or cause serious injury.

He said that Mr Cawley fell just before he reached the stairwell to Tyrone Place flats and that when they got to him, he jumped back up with the knife in his hand. He said Mr Cawley again went for his brother, and that Warren hit the knife out of his hand with the hurley.

“The knife went on the ground. I went for it and he dived on top of me,” said Jeffrey.

He said Mr Cawley was hitting him and that he tried to grab the knife. “I just wanted him off me,” said Jeffrey. He said he got free when he stabbed Mr Cawley “once or twice”.

When Mr Burns put it to him three of the wounds were deep and would require considerable effort, Jeffrey said: “I couldn’t tell you, I never stabbed anyone before.” Jeffrey said Mr Cawley was not dead when they left him. “He was moving, he was grand. We didn’t know he was that bad.”

Mr Burns put it to him he must have known that if he was stabbing someone repeatedly with a large knife it could kill or cause serious injury. He said he “knew it was going to hurt him”, but not seriously.

He said when they found out Mr Cawley had died, it was “the worst thing” he ever heard in his life.

Mr Burns said it was sufficient for someone to intend to cause serious injury to be convicted of murder. He maintained Mr Cawley never had a knife and that the Dumbrell brothers had been “tooled up” with a knife and a hurley.

Martin Giblin SC, defending Warren Dumbrell, said there was “considerable doubt” over the reliability of many witnesses, including family members of the deceased.

He said that if the two accused had intended to murder Mr Cawley why didn’t they go for the throat or upper chest.