Accused claimed he ‘just lost it’

THE Corkman on trial for murdering a 25-year-old British man told gardaí that: “I don’t know what the fuck I did, I just lost it.”

Timothy O’Driscoll, aged 34, from St Rita’s Avenue, Gurranabraher, denies a charge of murdering Lee McCarthy, aged 25, at St Rita’s Avenue, Gurranabraher, Cork, on April 17 at 12 St Rita’s Avenue.

Evidence was given of a number of interviews the defendant gave to gardaí.

Asked in one interview if there was anyone else involved in the altercation that led to Mr McCarthy’s death, O’Driscoll replied: “It was only me, so it must have been me. I would love to say sorry to the person’s family and everything. I still don’t know what happened. I hope it haunts me forever.”

Questioned at his home shortly after gardaí arrived, O’Driscoll claimed that Mr McCarthy was an intruder he found standing by his mother’s bed with a knife: “I threw him down the stairs, I dragged him out the back. After that I blanked out. All I remember after that is that I locked him into the shed.”

Asked in a subsequent interview if the man fought back, O’Driscoll replied: “No, he tried to stab me with the knife. I know I was choking him, I think I tried to strangle him. I don’t know where the blood came from. I have a very bad temper. When I start to lose it I get a pain up the side of my head. I asked the doctor to get me a brain scan the last time.”

Meanwhile, the cross-examination of Stephen Monaghan concluded yesterday. Mr Monaghan earlier told the court he had been drinking with O’Driscoll and Mr McCarthy and he and Mr McCarthy had been invited back to O’Driscoll’s house where they drank beer and watched music videos. Mr Monaghan said he saw O’Driscoll, punch and kick the deceased, stab him in the arm and put his hands around his neck.

Mr Monaghan said Mr McCarthy did not fight back or cry out.

“Timmy was doing all the roaring. He is schizophrenic, he would cut himself up from time to time ... I knew him to go into third gear from time to time but to go into fourth gear even surprised me.”

The case continues today at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury.