Court told of Smithfield body find

The trial of a 21-year-old man accused of murder has heard there were flies coming from the deceased’s nose after he was found up to 24 hours after his death in a disused building.

Mr Gary Gleeson has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Mr Paul Farrell in Smithfield, Dublin, last year.

Mr Gleeson, of no fixed abode, has denied murdering 46-year-old Paul Farrell of Moateview Gardens, Coolock, Dublin 17, in Coke Lane, Smithfield, in July 2003.

The court heard the fatal incident took place between 11.25pm on July 9, 2003, and 4pm on July 10, 2003.

Twenty-year-old Julie Kavanagh, from Dundrum, told the court that when she found the deceased along with two others, he was "lying on his back".

"He just had a top on and he was naked from the waist down. He was dead. There were flies coming from his nose. There was blood all over his face. You couldn’t recognise if it was a man or a woman," Ms Kavanagh said.

A plank of wood, Ms Kavanagh told the court, was beside the body.

Ms Kavanagh and her ex-boyfriend, Mr Steven Clarke (aged 22) both former heroin addicts, went to the disused building on Coke Lane to smoke heroin on July 10, 2003.

The court heard that before they made their way to Smithfield, Mr Clarke exchanged needles in the Merchant’s Quay drugs project.

After "scoring" three bags of heroin the pair, along with another man, went to the disused building on Coke Lane. This derelict shed was known by heroin addicts "as a place to go for people on drugs", Ms Kavanagh said.

The jury heard the building was in a bad condition, it was used a toilet and had syringes and spoons strewn on the ground.

After smoking a bag of heroin in one part of the building, they went to another room where they found the deceased in a darkened corner.

Ms Kavanagh said she was "very shocked" and left the building. She went along with the other two men to the Bridewell Garda Station, which is just 400 yards away.

Mr Clarke told the court under cross-examination by Mr Anthony Sammon SC that he was a former heroin addict and had used the disused building to inject and smoke drugs. He said the derelict shed had been an "old jeweller's factory" and that he "knew it was used by heroin addicts".

Dr James Moloney told the jury of eight women and four men that when he examined the body at Coke Lane "rigor mortis was present throughout the body, which indicated that deceased could have been dead up to 24 hours". He pronounced Mr Farrell dead at 4.30pm on July 10, 2003.

Addressing the jury, Mr Shane Murphy SC said in his opening speech that the deceased had "suffered severe head injuries" and that it had been a "violent death".

The State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy, he said, will testify that Mr Farrell died as a "result of blunt-force trauma to the head and face".

Mr Murphy SC said Mr Farrell had gone out socialising on July 9, 2003 in a pub on the Quays. The prosecution claims the accused was in the same pub and he "effectively communicated with the deceased".

"Thereafter the deceased and the accused left the pub and proceeded to a disused derelict shed, which was quite close to the Luas," Mr Murphy SC said.

It is claimed, Mr Murphy SC said, that the "deceased made unwelcome sexual advances" towards Mr Gleeson.

Mr Murphy SC told the jury that "Mr Farrell was a homosexual."

The prosecution claims Mr Farrell was "unlawfully killed" by the accused.

"The person responsible for the murder of Paul Farrell is the accused," Mr Murphy SC said.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White at the Central Criminal Court.