Limerick publican breaks down giving evidence

A Limerick publican broke down in the witness box today as he told a murder trial how a "desperate looking" 19-year-old made feeble movements towards him before collapsing from stab wounds during a fight outside the publican's premises in the Southill area of the city two years ago.

A Central Criminal Court jury has been watching security camera footage of the scene of the incident, where in the space of five minutes, a would-be fist fight ended in the fatal stabbing.

Christopher O'Callaghan (21), of O'Malley Park, Southill, Limerick has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Michael Fitzpatrick (19) of Yeats Avenue, Kincora Park, Southill outside the Olympic Arms pub on Roxboro Road on June 25, 1999.

Mr James Crowe, proprietor of the Olympic Arms, formerly known as the Galvone Arms, has identified the accused as the man he saw fighting with Michael Fitzpatrick.

Prior to the fight, there was a minor altercation between the pair in the pub's toilet, and the jury has heard that they apparently left the pub to have "a clean fight" outside.

Mr Crowe said he had gone into the toilet earlier in the night and found O'Callaghan, Fitzpatrick and two other youths in there.

"I asked them what they were doing in the toilet - there were four of them together - and they said they were only having a chat", Mr Crowe told prosecution lawyer PJ McCarthy SC.

Later, O'Callaghan and Fitzpatrick walked out past him to the outside the pub, he said. "I thought they had gone to the chipper. A couple of minutes later I went out the door again and I saw the two of them. They were fighting.

"They were fighting in the well in the stairs. I walked down towards them and said, 'What the hell is going on lads?' and with that, Michael Fitzpatrick looked at me and he was desperate looking..."

Mr Crowe broke down before he continued his evidence. He said Michael Fitzpatrick had got away from O'Callaghan and was moving towards him when the accused caught up with him.

O'Callaghan held up his arm and Fitzpatrick seemed to be trying to grasp the arm, the witness said. Then he saw O'Callaghan strike a blow into Michael Fitzpatrick's stomach.

"Mike walked towards me, tried to take a couple of steps towards me", James Crowe said. The youth's movements towards him were "very feeble", he told the prosecution counsel.

The witness said that when he got near them, O'Callaghan ran. Two other men then tried to hold Michael Fitzpatrick up against the railings. "We didn't know, we didn't realise", Mr Crowe said. The men then laid Fitzpatrick on the ground and Mr Crowe went to call an ambulance.

Security footage taken by a camera overlooking the walkway outside the pub shows what the prosecution allege is a struggle between two men at a point farthest from the camera.

One of the men walks towards the camera and is next seen on the ground. When two, then three other men go to the fallen man's assistance, a fourth man is seen with his back turned, walking or running away from the scene.

Detective Garda John Delaney, a scenes of crime security tape processor, told the trial that while the lighting directly outside the entrance to the pub was bright enough to read a newspaper in, it deteriorated further down the walkway away from the entrance door.

But the detective told Mr PJ McCarthy SC that the lighting was still "quite bright".

The lighting where the struggle took place was typical of visibility levels in housing estates, he said, while the lighting where Michael Fitzpatrick man collapsed was as good as that found on major traffic routes, such as the M50.

A number of witnesses are to be called by the prosecution to give evidence of what they saw happening during the fight.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice O'Higgins.