Teen found guilty of Coolock murder

Seventeen-year-old Christopher Dunne has been found guilty of the murder of Alan Higgins for his mobile phone at the Central Criminal Court.

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for just over three hours before reaching a unanimous verdict. Mr Dunne was also found guilty of stealing Alan Higgins’ Nokia 3310 and a sum of cash.

Mr Dunne, of Millwood Villas, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, had denied murdering schoolboy Alan Higgins (aged 17) of Carraroe Avenue in The Donaghies, Donaghmede, on October 13, 2002, outside UCI cinema, Coolock on Dublin’s north side.

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

Surrounded by family, Alan’s mother and sister, Miriam and Catriona Higgins, wept as the verdict was delivered.

Christopher Dunne’s father Patrick hugged his son from across the bench accompanied by his daughter Pamela as the verdict was returned.

Mr Justice Henry Abbott thanked the jury for its dedication and excused the jury members from service for the next 10 years.

The trial judge said he needed time to consider all elements of Mr Dunne’s case before sentencing the teenager. He said he would have to take into consideration the age of the convicted youngster.

Mr Dunne’s two accomplices on the night Alan Higgins lost his life, Mr Michael Maher and Mr Anthony Whelan, pleaded last week at the Central Criminal Court to the manslaughter of the schoolboy.

Mr Justice Henry Abbot said Mr Dunne would be sentence alongside Mr Maher and Mr Whelan.

Christopher Dunne was remanded in custody until October 26 to appear before Mr Justice Abbott.

During the 10-day trial, the jury heard that Alan Higgins had just kissed his girlfriend goodnight when he was set upon by Mr Dunne, Mr Maher and Mr Whelan. The convicted teenager stabbed Alan Higgins three times for his mobile phone and wallet outside the UCI complex in Coolock.

The State pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, told the jury during the trial that Alan Higgins died from "haemorraging and shock due to a stab wound to the chest".

Dr Cassidy said Alan Higgins "suffered considerable blood loss. So much had been lost that he developed a blood clot and blood was flowing from his wounds."

Alan Higgins, Dr Cassidy said, suffered three stab wounds to the chest, with the most serious stab wound "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.

"The upper lobe of the right lung had been removed" by surgeons when they were trying to save Alan Higgins’ life, Dr Cassidy said.

The fatal wound, which was found in the removed part of the lung, was "three centimetres long and cut through the lung", the State pathologist said.

Dr Cassidy was shown a steak knife in court, and said "yes, that was the knife I was shown" in October 2002.

"Given the dimensions of the knife and the wounds to the body, a knife like this could have caused the stab wounds.

"A knife like this would require only moderate force to penetrate the body cavities," she said.

Dr Cassidy said Alan Higgins had suffered from a "severe form of leukaemia when he was four years of age". From his medical notes from Temple Street Hospital, Dr Cassidy said Alan Higgins was in "complete remission" in 1989.

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

The schoolboy, Dr Cassidy said, also suffered "blunt force trauma to the head and arms". "The wounds to his face suggest Alan Higgins received a few punches to the face," she said.

The position of the fatal wound was in an "area normally protected" by the arm. "This suggests he had his arm raised in self defence when he was attacked," Dr Cassidy said.

The 17-year-old victim had "received multiple blood transfusions", Dr Cassidy said.

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 armpit area where "three slits in the t-shirt corresponded with the three stab wounds he suffered".

The day after Alan Higgins was fatally stabbed, Mr Dunne admitted to stabbing the schoolboy, telling gardaí: "I just stabbed the bloke. Very sorry. I am very sorry. It wasn’t meant to happen that way."

Detective Inspector Gerald Feeney of Coolock Garda Station told the trial that Mr Dunne, in the company of his father and mother, voluntarily gave a statement regarding the fatal stabbing on October 14, 2002.

In his statement to gardaí, the accused said: "There was three of us and I did the stabbing with the steak knife."

"I got the knife out of my own house. I didn’t get the phone. Myself and Michael Maher got the wallet. There was about €115 in it. We took é50 each and spent it on smokes and drinks that night," the accused said.

In the hours leading up to Mr Higgins’ fatal stabbing, the accused told gardaí that he went with Anthony Whelan and Michael Maher to an off-licence. "I had six cans and we smoked a joint" behind St Monica’s youth centre in Edenmore.

He told gardaí: "I was drunk at that stage." The three were there until 6pm, the accused told gardaí.

After they were thrown out of a fast food joint in the UCI complex at 9.30pm, the trio got into an altercation with some other boys. The accused told gardaí that they took a bag with a number of Dutch Gold cans of lager.

"I wanted to get my mates to take them on again. They wouldn’t come back. I went into my house and got out two knives.

"I put the knives in the back pocket of my jeans and pulled my jumper over," the accused told gardaí.

The accused said he gave Michael Maher "one of the knives". The trio then took a piece of white piping from a skip and broke it in two.

When Michael Maher, Anthony Whelan and the accused were heading back towards the UCI they allegedly came across Alan Higgins, who was going to catch his bus home.

"A bloke came up the path towards us. It was dark. He bumped into me. When I turned he was looking at me. I called the bloke a dope. The other guy said nothing. As he turned to walk away, we jumped him.

"The two of us fell to the ground. He was on top of me. I couldn’t get him off me. He was bigger than me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the knife. I stuck him with the knife and he rolled off me.

"He cried out: ‘Ah’. I stuck him again. I stabbed him in the side. I felt the knife go in. Michael Maher was holding him down as well.

"I found the wallet in his front jeans pocket. He walked towards the cinema holding his stomach and limping. That’s the last time I saw him," the accused told gardaí on October 14, 2002.

In his statement to gardaí, the accused said after the fatal stabbing Michael Maher and the defendant were in a further fight. Mr Maher, he said, had a "busted lip" and blood coming from his nose.

In the early hours of October 13, Maher and the accused allegedly opened the victim’s wallet. There were "loads of cards" in it, including a provisional licence, bankcards and a Movie Magic card. "We dumped everything except the cash. I still had the knife, I put it back in my back pocket."