Accused's friend speaks at pub row murder trial

A jury in the trial of a 20-year-old Dublin man accused of murder today heard that the accused told his friend: "I don't know what to do. My head is f**ked up. I don't know what to do".

Mr Jason Larkin of Ravensdale Road, East Wall, Dublin denies stabbing Mr Patrick Costello (aged 31), also of East Wall, at the Plough public house, Marlborough Street on July 4, 2002.

The prosecution claims that Mr Larkin stabbed the victim after the pair had been involved in a slagging match or row after drinking in the Plough bar for several hours.

The prosecution claims that after Mr Larkin threw a glass at Mr Costello's head they both ended up at the porch of the bar where the accused allegedly drew his knife from the inside of his jacket and lunged it into the chest of the deceased.

After the victim was stabbed, it is claimed that Mr Larkin allegedly fled the scene, withdrew money from an ATM machine and continued drinking in the Forum bar in the city centre before passing by the scene again in the early hours of July 5, 2002.

Mrs Deirdre Smith, a friend of the accused, today told the jury of eight men and four women in the third day of the murder trial that after Mr Larkin allegedly stabbed the deceased she told him to "leg it" from the scene.

The next day, at 7.30am, Mrs Smith claims that Mr Larkin rang her and said: "Paddy is dead". Later on in the day, Mrs Smith told the jury that Mr Larkin rang again and she told him to "hand himself up".

When she asked him about the knife, Mr Larkin allegedly said: "I have the knife with me." He then told her that he was at work. The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White at the Central Criminal Court.