Limerick man died of brain injuries, court told

A Co Limerick man died after "irreversible and irrevocable" injuries to the brain caused by a heavy object, a murder trial jury heard today.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the Central Criminal Court that Mr John Carroll suffered severe head injuries.

"There had been several blows to the left side of the head, caused by a heavy object, possibly with a sharp edge, with sufficient weight and sufficient force to fragment the skull, driving fragments of the skull into the brain tissue," she said.

Dr Cassidy said that the injuries were "irreversible and irrevocable" and when shown a wheel ratchet recovered by gardai she said that something similar to it could have caused the injuries.

Dr Cassidy said that Mr Carroll had a total of twenty eight marks or lacerations on his body but death was caused by a large depressed fracture of the skull.

"The skull bone was broken into small pieces, almost like a jigsaw, and these were driven into the cranium," she said.

Dr Cassidy said that there was "little in the way" of defensive injuries.

Cross examined by defence counsel Mr John Edwards Sc, Dr Cassidy agreed that an injury to Mr Carroll's chest could have been caused by a knee in the chest and she said this was not a serious injury and the ribs were intact.

It was the second day of the trial of Michael Sage (aged 26),of Glenacre, Killaloe, Co Clare who has 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.

The jury was told that William Roche was convicted of Mr Carroll's murder earlier this year and that Deirdre Rose, who is now the accused's wife, was charged with the murder, but acquitted.

The prosecution is claiming that Sage was part of a joint enterprise to rob and assault Mr Carroll whose badly beaten body was found in a lonely laneway near Ballinahinch, Co Tipperary.

Earlier Ms Bernadette Fitzgerald denied a suggestion by Mr Edwards that she had given "self serving" evidence to present herself as having no moral responsibility for the death of Mr John Carroll.

"If you think for five minutes that if I thought they were going to murder him, I wouldn't have tried to stop them, I tried to stop them beating him," she said.

"I didn't know they were going to murder him," she added. Ms Fitzgerald had earlier told the jury that she and Mr Carroll travelled to Killaloe from Limerick together.

She said that she later joined Mr Carroll and other people, including the accused, in a pub at Killaloe and that after leaving the pub they all went to her sister's house in the Clarisford estate.

She told the jury that she intervened to stop the accused hitting Mr Carroll and that she thought that the accused was taking Mr Carroll to hospital when they left in Sage's car.

The trial before Mr Justice Carney and the jury of six men and six women continues on Tuesday.