Caretaker 'came face-to-face' with murder accused

A caretaker of a sheltered housing complex for the elderly today told how he came face-to-face with the assailant of a resident when he investigated a night-time panic alarm.

Mr Frank McCracken told a jury at the Central Criminal court that he was woken up by his bleeper on his bedside table close to 3am on 13 December 2001 and immediately went to check the house of the late Mr Joseph O’Doherty.

"I tried the door and the door was unlocked. It was in darkness. Once I put the lights on I looked in the living room to my right, I was expecting to see him lying on the floor," he said.

"I noticed the fire extinguisher was knocked over, there were glasses on the bathroom floor," Mr McCracken told prosecuting counsel Mr Alex Owens SC.

"I went to the bedroom door and shouted ‘Joe are you alright?’ Just as I was knocking on the bedroom door, a man appeared to my right. I asked him 'what are you doing here?'. He looked at me and I looked at him and the next thing I knew he was gone out the door. He dashed out the door…he went up the Pennywell Road and turned right up towards the Cathedral," Mr McCracken said.

He told the jury the man had the back of his hand up to his face to try and hide his identity but he managed to catch a glimpse of a tall "thin-ish youthful lad" with "straight brown hair".

Mr McCracken then told of his horror at finding the body of Mr O’Doherty in his bedroom.

"I went back into the hallway and I opened the bedroom door. I saw a heap of blankets. I picked up the corner of the blanket and I seen Joe's face" he said.

"His head was lying towards the bed head. I bent down and picked up the blanket, I seen his eyes, they were staring out at me. That's when I realised something was very wrong and I dashed out for help," he told the jury.

Mr McCracken was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Mr Darren Cunneen (aged 28) for the murder of Mr Joseph O’Doherty at his home in Pennywell, Limerick city on 13 December 2001. Mr Cunneen has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.

Garda Jim Buckley testified that he had called into the deceased the evening before his death at 7pm

He said: "He was having his dinner at the time, he was very happy and content".

A barman from a city centre pub testified that the accused was drinking alone in the pub from 7.30pm until closing time on Wednesday 12 December. He confirmed for Mr Owens that Mr Cunneen consumed between 8 and 9 pints of Guinness during the night.

Meanwhile, forensic shoe print expert, Garda Shane Henry, told the court that in his opinion bloody shoeprints found both at the scene and on the deceased’s stomach "were of a similar pattern" to the accused’s shoes.

Garda Henry said: "A shoe of a similar pattern to Mr Cunneen caused these marks."

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of nine women and three men.