Teen murder victim's girlfriend speaks to court

The girlfriend of Alan Higgins, who was stabbed to death, has told a jury she received a text message from his phone an hour after it had been stolen.

"At around 11.45pm, I received a text message from Alan’s phone", the 17-year-old schoolgirl said.

The girl received the text message in the presence of gardaí at Beaumont Hospital while waiting on news of Mr Higgins.

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murdering Alan Higgins (aged 17) of Carraroe Avenue in The Donaghies, Donaghmede, on October 13, 2002, outside a cinema on Dublin’s north side.

The accused also denies stealing the victim’s mobile phone and a sum of cash on October 12, 2002.

Mr Higgins’ girlfriend told the jury that she arranged to meet Alan along with her friends at 8pm at UCI complex in Coolock on the night he was fatally stabbed.

"We played pool for the night and some of the girls were on the dance machines," she said.

Just after 11pm, Mr Higgins told his girlfriend he was going to get the last bus home. His girlfriend yesterday said she wanted to walk with him to the bus but that Mr Higgins "said no, because he didn’t want me to walk on my own, so I walked with him as far as the barrier".

"I kissed Alan goodnight," she said.

A few minutes later, accompanied by her friends, Mr Higgins’ girlfriend "noticed a commotion outside the cinema".

"I saw Alan. He was lying on the ground. There was blood on the ground. He was holding his side.

"Someone said he had been stabbed and I got hysterical. I couldn’t see him then because there were people in front of me," she said.

The girl was shown parts of a red Nokia 3310 mobile phone in court, saying her boyfriend's mobile was "a Nokia 3310 with a red cover". She was then shown a wallet. Wiping back tears, the teenager said her boyfriend,s wallet was "identical to this one".

Prosecuting counsel, Mr Brendan Grehan SC, told the jury in his opening speech that this was a "very sad case".

"The deceased Alan Higgins was a mere 17 years of age at the time of his death", Mr Grehan said.

Alan Higgins, Mr Grehan SC said, was born on March 23, 1985, and came from Donaghmede where he lived with his parents and his older sister. He had just finished transition year, had a part-time job in a golf shop and wanted to study architecture when he finished school.

Mr Grehan SC told the jury that Alan Higgins had leukaemia when he was just fours years of age.

"He was treated successfully and you will hear from the state pathologist that this played no part of his death," said Mr Grehan SC.

On the night Mr Higgins lost his life, Mr Grehan SC said, he had arranged to meet his girlfriend at the UCI complex in Coolock to play pool and computer games. Mr Higgins, the court heard, withdrew €120 from a pass machine on his way to meet his girlfriend at 8pm.

At 11.05pm Mr Higgins told his girlfriend and her friends that he was getting the last bus home because he was working the next day.

Addressing the jury of eight men and four women, Mr Grehan SC said he walked outside with his girlfriend where he "kissed her good night".

"A short distance away Mr Higgins was set upon and mugged," Mr Grehan SC said.

"He arrived back staggering to the front of the cinema. He was bleeding and coughing up blood," Mr Grehan SC said.

At 11.21pm an ambulance arrived and Mr Higgins was brought to Beaumont Hospital within four minutes, where doctors were on standby.

The court heard that Mr Higgins was taken "immediately to theatre but suffered a cardiac arrest and then another one".

Mr Grehan SC said: "Despite attempts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead at 3.10am on October 13, 2002".

The court heard that bank cards belonging to Mr Higgins were discovered on a road near the murder scene and also a knife. "There was blood on the knife and the DNA showed it was the blood of Mr Alan Higgins," Mr Grehan SC said.

The state pathologist, Marie Cassidy, Mr Grehan SC told the jury, will say Mr Higgins suffered three stab wounds to the side of his chest.

"Two were superficial but a third had gone deep into his lung and caused deep bleeding and it was this that caused him to ultimately die," Mr Grehan said.

The prosecution claims that in the hours before Mr Higgins was fatally stabbed the accused and two other youths stole a bag containing alcohol from another teenager. A fight then broke out.

The accused, Mr Grehan SC, said allegedly went back to his house with his two friends where he took two knives from the kitchen. The prosecution claims that the accused kept one of these knives while his friend kept the other.

The three youngsters then went back to the cinema complex where, the prosecution claims, they robbed two other teenagers. Mr Grehan said one of their victim’s will tell the court that the accused asked for his mobile and that the "accused threatened him with a knife".

Mr Higgins, Mr Grehan SC alleges, "fell foul to the same three youths".

"During the course of the incident, a wallet and phone was stolen and perhaps Alan Higgins put up too much resistance," Mr Grehan SC said.

The prosecution claims that the accused "took out a knife and stuck it into Alan Higgins’ upper body. The accused did so when Alan Higgins was on the ground while the accused had two mates with him," Mr Grehan SC said.

"Ultimately this was a totally unjustifiable attack on a young man for the purpose of carrying out a robbery," prosecution counsel said. "The accused is not just guilty of robbery but guilty of the murder of Alan Higgins," Mr Grehan SC said.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Abbott tomorrow.