Stabbing victim died from haemorraging, court hears

The State Pathologist told a jury today that schoolboy Alan Higgins died from "haemorraging and shock due to a stab wound to the chest".

Dr Marie Cassidy said the 17-year-old schoolboy "suffered considerable blood loss, so much had been lost that he developed a blood clot and blood was flowing from his wounds".

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murdering Mr 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 robbing the victim's mobile phone and a sum of cash on October 12, 2002.

Dr Cassidy showed the jury the blood stained t-shirt that Alan Higgins had been wearing on the night he was fatally stabbed.

She pointed to the right arm pit area where "three slits in the t-shirt corresponded with the three stab wounds he suffered," Dr Cassidy said.

Alan Higgins, Dr Cassidy said, suffered three stab wounds with one "penetrating the lung".

"The knife had gone inwards and upwards from back to front, penetrating his third and fourth ribs and then into his lung", Dr Cassidy said.

Dr Cassidy said Alan Higgins had suffered from a "severe form of leukaemia when he was four years of age".

She said he had completely recovered from the illness and that "he was not suffering from leukaemia when he was fatally stabbed".