Man told gardaí he'd 'do it again', court told

A 50 year-old man who stabbed a HIV-positive patient to death in St James’s Hospital told gardaí that he would "do it again" when they arrested him.

Patrick Gilraine, a father-of-four, from Basin St flats, Dublin 8, admitted to Garda Sean Cosgrove that he had carried out the frenzied attack on Kevin Dowler, aged 52, and said he hoped his victim was dead.

"I stabbed him, I stabbed him with a knife, I hope he’s dead, he’s a paedophile," Gilraine told Garda Cosgrove as he handcuffed him outside the hospital shortly after the attack.

When cautioned by the garda, he repeated "I’d do it again". He later signed the note of his comments in the garda’s notebook, agreeing it was correct.

Garda Cosgrove was giving his evidence on the second day of the trial of Mr Gilraine at the Central Criminal Court today.

Mr Gilraine (otherwise known as Kilraine) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Kevin Dowler at St James's Hospital, Dublin on 7 February 2000.

The State Pathologist Dr John Harbison told the court that Mr Dowler died as a result of two of seven stab wounds, to the lungs and liver.

In evidence he said that although the victim was "seriously ill" with a "long and complicated medical and surgical history for chronic infections" he died as a result of the stabbing.

"The only relevance of his background to his death was that his ability to defend himself against violent attack was reduced," Dr Harbison told the court.

He concluded the cause of death was from "shock, haemorrhage and the inhalation of blood, due to stab wounds in the left lung and the liver".

Evidence was heard from two social workers that Mr Gilraine approached them on the afternoon of the killing to voice his concerns about the impending discharge of Mr Dowler from hospital.

Margaret Byrne, a senior medical social worker at the hospital said that Mr Gilraine called to her office at around 2pm.

"He started to tell me he was concerned that Kevin should not be released and said he had reason to believe he’d molest young boys, he’d done so before and would do so again," she said.

"He said they were young homeless boys," she said. He referred to a particular young boy who lived it the flats in Basin Street and said while he "wasn’t unreasonable" he was concerned that no one would believe him without evidence.

He also told her that he hadn’t acted earlier as Mr Dowler was not expected to survive his illness, but now had made a recovery.

The head of the section, Maeve Foreman was informed of Mr Gilraine’s concerns and came to speak to him.

She re-assured him that his allegations were serious and that the proper route to take was to inform the gardaí or the health board who had the authority to investigate the matter.

"I explained that we could not prevent his [Mr Dowler’s] discharge, we were not a holding centre and couldn’t keep him in hospital against his will," she said.

She said she emphasised to him that he could be the "missing link" that the gardaí needed in the event that other unsubstantiated allegations had been made to the gardaí about Mr Dowler.

"He said he knew a guard and would discuss it with him," she said. "I got the impression he was going to go to the health board or talk to the guard," she added.

Under cross-examination by Mr Peter Le Vert BL for the defence the witness said that in the circumstances she and her staff had acted properly.

However, she said the matter would have been followed up by the hospital social workers had Mr Dowler not been attacked and killed.

"I put the responsibility back to him to take his concerns to the authorities, but then we would have looked at our responsibility as well," she said.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins and a jury.