Struck with baseball bat after giving van ‘thump’

A man was “smacked at the back of his head” by a man with a baseball bat after he hit a parked van “a thump”, a murder trial jury has heard.

Zoltan Almasi, aged 44, with an address at Harbour View, Naas, Co Kildare, is charged with murdering Joseph Dunne at the same address on May 16, 2014.

On Monday at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Almasi pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Dunne.

Yesterday, Bernard Condon, prosecuting, called Mikey McDonagh to give evidence. The 20-year-old from Kildare told the jury he met the deceased, JoJo (Joseph) Dunne and another friend, Gavin Breen, on May 16.

The court heard the men also met up with three girls at the harbour in Naas on the day. At 10pm, the group wanted to catch a bus home to Kildare so they began walking along the harbour.

Mr McDonagh told the court that along the way they met a man with “a hairy beard” who Mr Dunne had “some interaction with”.

“We brought JoJo on,” said the witness. “As we approached a vehicle which was parked against a wall, JoJo was kinda in bad form over something and he took it out on a van. He jostled it, hit it a thump.

“I walked up the road to see where the girls were and as I was walking back, I could see someone coming behind us with a baseball bat. JoJo jumped over a bollard and the man ran after him. He smacked him with a bat at the back of the head. I was terrified.”

Mr McDonagh then told Mr Condon that the man “was bald and had glasses at the time”.

When the witness was asked how the man hit him, Mr McDonagh said: “He raised the bat with his right hand. JoJo was running. He was facing away from the man and had his back turned.”

The court heard that Mr Dunne fell to the ground when he was hit.

Mr McDonagh told Colm Ó Briain, defending, that Mr Dunne only hit the van once “with his fist” .”

“He was walking away from the van and we saw a man coming out of a house and he started running,” said the witness.

Later, the witness agreed the deceased had struck the van more than once.

“Mr Dunne then, a number of seconds later, runs down the road pursued by Mr Almasi?” asked Mr Ó Briain. Mr McDonagh agreed.

Mr Condon then called Mr Breen, 21, to give evidence. Mr Breen told counsel that he let out a roar at the man who hit his cousin “at the side of his face”.

This man then “chased” Mr Breen around a jeep before “he ran back down towards his house”.

The witness described the man who struck his cousin “once” as “bald, wearing a tracksuit, and stocky”.

The prosecution also called a teenage girl from Naas to give evidence.

She told the court that on the night she saw an “angry” man who “just started running after JoJo”.

“The man hit him really hard with a bat on the head. The right side of JoJo’s face was very swollen and he just went flat on the ground. I only saw him hit him once,” she said.

The trial continues.