Accused admitted stabbing to friend, jury hears

A 21-year-old man on trial for murder told one of his friends that he had stabbed another man as they left a house party in the early hours of the morning, a murder trial jury heard today.

Giving evidence in the trial of Mr Stephen Kelly, his friend Mark Larkin (aged 22) said that he was one of a number of young people who were asked to leave a party because there were a "few people outside with poles".

Mr Larkin’s evidence was heard at the Central Criminal Court on the sixth day of the trial of Mr Kelly (aged 21) of Westpark, Artane in Dublin. Mr Kelly denies the murder of Mr Jonathan Guy of Belcamp Crescent, Priorswood outside a house at Newgrove Estate, Donaghmede, Dublin on March 11, 2001.

"Jenny came in at around 2am and asked us to leave, she said there was too many of us in the house and we had to leave," Mr Larkin told Mr Tom O’Connell SC for the prosecution. He said that before he left the house he went into the kitchen with Karl Rheinisch and Stephen Kelly "to see if we could get a pole or something".

"I seen Karl Rheinisch handing a knife to Stephen Kelly from the kitchen drawer," he said. He said no one stuck him as he left the house and that he met Stephen Kelly again five or ten minutes later at the front gate of the house.

"He just said, ‘I’m after stabbing a man’ or something," the witness said. "I was in shock, I said ‘you did in your bollocks’," he continued.

After this, the witness said he got a taxi to Finglas and that the accused got a taxi to David Cunningham’s house, where he was staying. Under cross-examination Mr Larkin agreed with Mr Patrick MacEntee SC for the defence that they looked for a pole in the kitchen "to protect themselves".

David Cunningham told the court that the accused slept in a bunk bed in his room when he returned from the party. Mr Cunninghan said that before they fell asleep the accused said, "I hope that yer man’s alright, they had poles looking for me".

Jonathan Guy died several days after suffering a fatal stab wound to the chest as he stood outside the house in Newgrove Estate. The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury.