Accused: I did not want him to die in chute

Man tells trial he thought victim would slide down into the rubbish and go about his business

The man accused of murdering a 59-year-old homeless man admitted yesterday he put him in the rubbish chute outside his apartment and claimed, “I thought he would slide down into the rubbish and go on about his business.”

David O’Loughlin, 28, with an address at Garden City Apartments, North Main Street, Cork, got into the witness box and testified that he was not guilty of murdering Liam Manley, 59, at Garden City Apartments, North Main St, Cork, on May 12 2013.

“I did not want him to die in that chute. I was horrified when I learned he had died in this chute. I could not believe my actions had led to the death of this man,” O’Loughlin testified.

He said another man in the flat, David O’Mahony, had said he knew Liam Manley from the Simon community and he said there had been some situation involving Mr Manley and a girl that had been too disgusting to describe. O’Loughlin said he knew now that was not true and he did not want to blacken the late Mr Manley’s name. However, he said at the time he punched him twice and told him to leave. He said Mr Manley did not want to go and he put him out and into the chute.

He told his senior counsel, Brendan Nix, prior to this he had gone to get a McDonald’s in the early hours, met Mr Manley whom he did not know, gave him food and brought him back to his apartment because he empathised with him being homeless.

O’Loughlin said when the other man in the room made references to paedophilia in relation to Liam Manley, “It brought up a lot of shit for me. I got uncomfortable with the situation.”

Asked why he had described matters differently to the gardaí, O’Loughlin said, “It is the mechanics of how the question was put.”

Mr Gillane SC put it that after assaulting Mr Manley he was there in the apartment bleeding and what Mr Gillane described as “walking, talking evidence against you of you assaulting him,” and “you decided ‘I will get rid of him, get rid of the evidence.”

O’Loughlin said he just wanted Mr Manley to leave the apartment. The accused said, “I picked him up and tipped him into the chute. I did not think what was going to happen.”

Mr Gillane said, “What was to stop you picking him up and shagging him into the lift?” He replied, “I don’t know… I thought this (putting Mr Manley in the chute) would be a way of me moving him from my apartment.”

Mr Gillane said Mr Manley struggled for his life, the accused put him into the chute backwards and head first. O’Loughlin replied, “That is not correct, I did not put him in backwards. There was no struggling with me whatsoever. You are trying to push everything in your favour. I thought there would be a gradual fall into rubbish.”

Finishing his cross-examination, Mr Gillane said, “The last thing you saw were his feet heading 40 ft down the chute?” O’Loughlin replied, “That is correct.”

It is anticipated the jury will commence their deliberations later today.