Accused ‘just wanted to curl up and die’ after stabbing

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.

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 in Cork.

When detectives told Quinlan that Mr 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 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 Mr McKee, “It could have been at least three, no more than three”.

He said the knife he used was one that Mr 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 f**king started on me. He hit me with something. I went after him, I didn’t go after him to stab him.”

He was interviewed earlier in the day before Mr McKee died and he said Mr McKee was “psycho” that night.

Quinlan took a lot of drugs and alcohol that day and said he was out of his head after having €300 worth of cocaine, some heroin and numerous cans of lager on the night/early morning of August 24/25. He said he had fought with Mr McKee a number of times before.

“He (the deceased) was after going away. He came back with knives, he definitely had two anyway...” Quinlan stated.

Quinlan said he got involved in an argument with Mr McKee that night because the deceased had been rowing with his former partner and spat in her face. Quinlan said he took Ciara Delaney’s side because he was going out with her sister, Rebecca.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney and jury today.