Teenage stab victim 'choked on his own blood'

A murder trial jury has heard how a teenage father-of-one, stabbed to death in a row outside his home in Carlow, choked on his own blood.

The deputy state pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy today told a Central Criminal Court jury that 17-year-old Warren Slater was stabbed three times: in the left side of the neck, the back of his left upper arm and the left side of the back of his chest.

Dr Cassidy said that the "most significant wound" was that to the neck. The stab wound cut through two major vessels, she said, the jugular vein and the carotid artery, causing major blood loss which in turn caused Warren Slater to choke on his own blood.

Twenty-two-year-old John Dillon, of Granby Row, Carlow, denies a charge of the murder of Warren Slater outside a house at Granby Row, Carlow on May 13, 2001.

At the time of the incident, Warren Slater lived with his girlfriend, Ms Louise Heary and their six-month-old baby in a downstairs bedsit of the same house in which John Dillon lived with his mother Noeleen and his sister, Cathy.

Dr Marie Cassidy said that Warren Slater would have been expected to survive one of the stab wounds he received to the upper arm.

However, she said, the third stab wound, which penetrated his rib cage and injured his lung would have contributed to his breathing problems and could be life-threatening if left untreated.

She concluded that the cause of death of the deceased youth was haemorrhage and inhalation of blood due to a stab wound to his neck, and as a contributory factor, the stab wound to his chest.

The trial continues before Mr Justice White and a jury.