Man pleads not guilty to murder

A Co Clare man took part in a joint enterprise to rob and assault a Limerick man whose badly beaten body was found on a lonely road near a Co Tipperary village in 1998, a murder trial jury at the Central Criminal Court was told today.

Prosecuting counsel Mr Eamonn Leahy SC told the jury that Michael Sage and two other people had assaulted Mr John Carroll after they spent the night drinking at Killaloe in Co Clare.

"If you are satisfied that there was a joint enterprise which involved the application of significant force to Mr Carroll, force which would cause death or serious harm, it matters not who struck the fatal blow,'' Mr Leahy said.

Michael Sage (aged 26),of Glenacre, Killaloe, Co Clare pleaded not guilty to the murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr John Carroll (aged 22) of Mullally Grove, Cappamore, Co Limerick, at Gurraun, Ballinahinch, Newport, Co Tipperary on December 4, 1998.

He also pleaded guilty to a second charge of falsely imprisoning Mr Carroll on the same date.

Opening the prosecution case, Mr Leahy told the jury of six men and six women that Sage has accepted that he was responsible for the unlawful killing of Mr Carroll but they had to decide if it was murder or manslaughter.

He said the body of Mr Carroll was found on a lonely laneway leading to farmland near Ballinahinch, Newport in Co Tipperary at 7.15 am on the morning of Decemeber 4, 1998 by a local farmer, Mr Liam Ryan, who was going to fodder his cattle.

The body had severe head injuries and the jury would hear that there was a large depressed fracture of the skull and lacerations which resulted from severe blows to the left side of the head.

The jury would hear that death was not immediate and that it was possible that Mr Carroll lay dressed in jeans and a tee shirt on a lonely muddy laneway for some time.

Mr Leahy said the jury would hear evidence that the previous day Mr Carroll had a number of drinks in Limerick and then got a bus to Killaloe where he had joined a party of people.

At midnight the party left the pub in Killaloe and went to a house at Clarisford in the town where it was discussed whether Mr Carroll should be charged £30 or £50 to spend the night on the sofa.

Mr Carroll decided to leave the house and a neighbour then witnessed him being assaulted on the roadway.

The neighbour saw a taller man kick him up to four times, leaving him doubled up on the grass. The neighbour went to summon the gardai and when he returned Mr Carroll was gone.

Mr Leahy said that Mr Carroll was taken in the accused's car with the accused driving, a woman as a front seat passenger and another man in the back with Mr Carroll.

He said the evidence will be that these three people were present at the time Mr Carroll was beaten to death with a heavy object.

He said that Mr Carroll was driven to `` a small quiet, lonely boreen'' and it was there that he was killed. A heavy ratchet handle was taken from the car and used in the final assault, he added.

``Mr Carroll was left dying on the roadway and the people drove off,'' he said.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Carney and the jury.