Court hears of ambulance delay in Murphy case

The ambulance that took Brian Murphy to hospital after he had been violently beaten outside the Burlington Hotel was slow to take him away because they thought he was intoxicated with drink, a witness has told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The jury also heard another witness relate how the deceased told her he expected to be beaten up by "some boys from Terenure Colllege" that night.

Barry Cassidy, a former Blackrock College student and a friend of four youths charged with unlawfully killing Mr Murphy, said he saw the aftermath of the incident that led to his death.

Mr Cassidy, who had also befriended the deceased in Bruce College, said at first he saw two people holding on to each others shirts and "mouthing off to each other". He thought one of the men was Andrew Frame, one of the accused.

As he walked closer to the group, he realised that these two people were separated from a larger group, and he saw Brian Murphy lying on the ground. Mr Cassidy said he wasn’t moving and there were about 15 people standing around him.

He told Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, that he went over and began to tap his face and open his eyelids but there was no reaction. There was also blood coming out of his mouth. Mr Cassidy said he sat him up, put him over his shoulder and carried him across the road.

He propped him up against the wall and rubbed blood off his mouth and tried to open his eyes, but again there was no reaction. He said that another of the accused, Desmond Ryan, was close by at this stage. He told Mr Cassidy that "the lad had got a fierce beating".

Mr Cassidy said one of Brian’s friends, Morgan Crean, rang the ambulance. Mr Murphy was then carried back across the road to the front gate of the hotel and placed on his side on a grass verge. Mr Cassidy said Mr Ryan helped to carry Mr Murphy back across the road.

He couldn’t remember the ambulance arriving but he could remember it being there. He thought the ambulance men just seemed to be waiting around and Brian’s friends were urging them to take him away.

Mr Cassidy said they seemed to be slow to take him away because they thought he was "out of it on drink".

Other people that were there began to shout at them and eventually Brian was put in the ambulance, and taken to St Vincent’s Hospital.

Mr Cassidy said he then met Desmond Ryan and they went to a casino in town with two other friends, David Cox and Darragh Crowley. They stayed there until about 7am, but while there they heard on the radio that someone had died after a fight outside the Burlington Hotel.

He went outside and phoned the hospital to enquire how Brian Murphy was, but the nurse would say nothing. He believed the person they had heard about on the radio was Mr Murphy.

Andrew Frame (22), from Nutley Lane, Donnybrook, Sean Mackey (23), from South Park, Foxrock, Desmond Ryan (22), from Cunningham Road, Dalkey, all Co Dublin, and Dermot Laide (22), from Rossvale, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan have pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 18-year-old Mr Murphy at Sussex Road on August 31, 2000.

The four former Blackrock College students have also denied committing violent disorder by using or threatening to use unlawful violence on the same date.

Ms Louise Geraghty said she just saw a group of people outside the front gate kicking someone in the head but she couldn’t see who was involved.

She told Mr John Edwards SC, for Laide, and Mr Anthony Sammon SC, for Mackey, that she knew Brian Murphy very well and had spoken to him inside Club Anabel’s earlier. He told her he expected to be beaten up that night by "some boys from Terenure College".

She said two weeks prior to his death she met him outside the Palace disco on Camden Street and he told her he had been thrown out because he "loafed" someone from Terenure College.

She said he was in a row with one of them over his ex-girlfriend, Laura Murphy. He said he was expecting them to come out that night and beat him up but she just told him to go home. Laura Murphy then came out to speak to him and Ms Geraghty left the pair.

Mr Dougie McGovern said he saw "a guy in a red shirt" punching someone else in the head and he then received a kick in the stomach from that person. He then saw the same youth receive a second kick a little higher up near the chest area.

Mr McGovern said he then saw this person, who was established in court to be Mr Murphy, receive a punch to the side of the head and fall to the ground. Some people began kicking him but he couldn’t identify any of them.

He saw one person who wore a grey top involved. He also said he remembered a black shoe that looked quite new and another black shoe with a buckle. He identified two pairs of shoes that were attributed to Dermot Laide as being similar.

Mr McGovern agreed with Mr Edwards, for Laide, that one of the shoes he was shown had a hole in it and couldn’t have been new. Counsel then said that the shoes were taken after a search of his client’s home in Co Monaghan and they were in fact his father’s.

Mr McGovern also agreed with Mr Edwards that the shoes he saw were quite common and that plenty of young men wore similar footwear.

The trial continues before Judge Michael White and a jury of eight men and four women.