Mother of accused alleges stab victim 'tried to have sex' with her

The mother of a Carlow man accused of the murder of a teenage father-of-one has alleged that the dead youth tried to have sex with her two weeks before her son allegedly stabbed him to death.

Ms Noeleen Dillon, the mother of 22-year-old John Dillon, of Granby Row, Carlow, who is on trial for the murder of 17-year-old Warren Slater, was giving evidence on the second day of the Central Criminal Court trial today.

Mr Slater was stabbed to death outside a house at Granby Row, Carlow on May 13, 2001.

John Dillon denies the charge of murder.

The court heard that at the time of his death Mr Slater lived with his girlfriend, Ms Louise Heary and their six-month-old baby in a downstairs bedsit of the same house in which Mr Dillon lived with his mother Noeleen and his sister, Cathy.

In evidence, Ms Noeleen Dillon said she was "nearly being raped" by Warren Slater a couple of weeks before the stabbing. She told the trial that her son "just flipped" after Warren Slater mentioned the alleged attempted rape during an unrelated incident on the night of May 13 2001. She said she heard her son John say, "You tried to rape my mother" and then heard Mr Slater say, "So what?" or words to that effect.

Asked what she meant by "just flipped", Ms Dillon told Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, "Well, put it like this: I was after nearly being raped and then he turned around and said that. What would anybody's reaction be?"

Ms Dillon said that what happened next was "a spur of the moment thing". Her son went into the house and returned with a knife in his hand. She tried to stop him and tried to take the knife off him, cutting her finger in the process, she said. He got past her and went back outside. Although she did not see the stabbing, she saw Warren Slater staggering immediately afterwards, she said.

Ms Dillon said that "a couple of weeks" before the stabbing, she was upstairs in her sitting room when Mr Slater and his girlfriend Louise Heary arrived in. Warren Slater had a duvet draped over him with just his underpants on underneath, she said. He told Ms Heary to bring Mrs Dillon's daughter Cathy down to the bedsit with her, and while they were gone, "he tried it on with me", she said.

Ms Dillon said she had been upset that night, and Warren Slater was sitting on the settee trying to calm her down when he pushed her down on it. She "went off the settee" and he "came on the floor" after her and "tried to have sex" with her, she said. The next morning, Ms Dillon said, there were "lots of bruises" on her arm.

She said she told her son about the alleged incident, but he showed little or no reaction. "To be honest with you, John is very quiet, he keeps a thing in and then when anyone annoys him or upsets him in any way, you know what I mean", she said.

Ms Dillon told Mr Patrick J McCarthy SC, defending, that she also told a friend, Mr Michael Kinsella about the incident the next day. "Warren Slater came in and admitted it in front of Michael Kinsella," she said. Warren Slater then apologised for "trying it on", she said.

The girlfriend of the deceased, Ms Louise Heary has denied in her evidence that the alleged sexual incident ever happened. Opening the case, the prosecution counsel Mr Edward Comyn SC said that an allegation "of sexual assault" had a part to play in the fatal stabbing.

In other evidence yesterday, the landlord of the house at Granby Row, Mr Declan Costello told the court that in May 2001, he had got a number of reports that the Dillons were unhappy with the fact that Warren Slater was living in the bedsit with the tenant, Louise Heary. He said he got a phone call from Noeleen Dillon's friend, Mr Kinsella in relation to Mr Slater. As a result of what he was told in the phone call, he thought it prudent to seek the advise of the Garda, Mr Costello said.

He said he drove to Carlow and spoke to gardai there. The advice he got was "that basically there was nothing criminal involved", he said. He told Mr McCarthy that he was also made aware "of something" by the gardai that he felt he ought not to speak of now. But what he was told led to him acting in a certain way, he said.

He said he went back to the house in Granby Row and went to the bedsit where Louise Heary and Mr Slater stayed. It was unlocked, the door was slightly ajar and no one appeared to be in. He knocked and called out before sticking his head around the door.

He saw a knife sticking out from in under the bed. He immediately removed it and put it in a bag, Mr Costello said.

He said he then sat in his car and waited until Louise Heary came home. He asked her to vacate the bedsit by the next Saturday, but when she pleaded for another week, he agreed.

Questioned by Mr Justice White, Mr Costello said he had not served a notice to quit and only got to view the letting agreement signed by Ms Heary and a letting agency acting on his behalf, after the event.

The trial continues before Mr Justice White and a jury.