Teen denies hammer attack murder charge

A 16-year-old Laois teenager who allegedly hammered a friend to death over a mobile phone pleaded not guilty to his murder at the Central Criminal Court today.

The 16-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murdering the 14-year-old school boy in Co Laois on November 11, 2003.

The deceased, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found on waste ground at around 11pm on November 11, 2003.

In his opening speech, prosecuting counsel, Anthony Sammon, SC, alleged that the accused, who was aged 15 at the time of the alleged murder, inflicted the fatal injuries.

The deceased, he said, "sustained traumatic force to his head especially to the rear of the head".

"Those injuries were caused with a hammer," Mr Sammon, SC, told the jury of five men and seven women.

"That hammer was wielded by the accused," he said.

Mr Sammon alleged the deceased "had a mobile phone that was of interest to the accused".

The prosecuting counsel told the jury that a "desire on behalf of the accused" for the mobile phone was a "significant factor to the killing".

"It is the prosecution's contention that when the fatal injury was administered…it was done with intention to kill," Mr Sammon, SC said.

The jury heard, that the victim met his death between the hours of 5.15pm and 5.45pm on the evening of November 11, 2003.

Addressing the jury, Mr Sammon, SC, alleged that the accused had spoken to his peer group about the murder and as a result, the prosecution contends that the accused "had formulated the intention to cause the death of the deceased".

A 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, testified that she rang gardaí after receiving a phone call from a teenager in Laois at 10.50pm on November 11, 2003.

It was this phone call that alerted gardaí to the body in waste ground.

The jury heard the deceased was pronounced dead some time after 11.45pm on November 11 2003.

His statement was read out in court by Mr John Short, BL.

The doctor said the deceased had a "massive depressed skull fracture with brain tissue visible", and had been "possibly dead for about six hours".

Detective Garda Thomas Carey of the Garda Technical Bureau told the jury that he went to the crime scene on November 12, 2003.

In the densely wooded area where the deceased was allegedly murdered, Detective Carey said he found at the back of the deceased's head "fragments of skull and brain tissue and a lot of blood".

"There was a large open wound to which the brain tissue could be seen," Detective Carey said.

Detective Carey told the jury that he also went to a house where gardaí had found the alleged murder weapon.

Behind a tree in the back garden of the house, Detective Carey said, gardaí found a hammer. "It was the type of hammer used by engineers or mechanics," he said.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White.