Brian Murphy killer's trial prejudiced, court told

The man sentenced to four years for the manslaughter of student Brian Murphy outside Dublin’s Club Anabel was unfairly put “in the spotlight” for the killing, a court heard today.

Dermot Laide, (aged 23), from Castleblaney in Co Monaghan, is appealing his conviction and the severity of his sentence at the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The three-judge court heard from Laide’s lawyers that the appeal was based on three main grounds – the editing of the statements of the four men accused of Murphy’s manslaughter, the media coverage of the trial and the rulings of the trial judge, Michael White.

Senior counsel Michael O’Higgins, representing Laide, said the editing of statements given by Laide, Sean Mackey, Desmond Ryan and Andre Frame, had prejudiced his client’s right to a fair trial.

He said that during the editing process, the tag “Mr A” was used to refer to a man who had kicked Brian Murphy in the head while he lay on the ground outside Club Anabel on August 31, 2000.

During the trial counsel for Ryan and Frame asked a garda witness to confirm that their clients were not Mr A.

Mr O’Higgins said this had purely identified for the jury, through a process of elimination, that Laide was Mr A. “Far from protecting and giving him screening, it put a spotlight on him,” he said.

He said the judge’s warning to the jury about this evidence had been unsatisfactory because the judge himself had earlier stated that a warning would not be sufficient.

Mr O’Higgins said Laide had got involved after his friend Andrew Frame had got involved in a confrontation with Brian Murphy. There was evidence that Laide had punched Murphy twice in the head with blows of a very severe nature.

However Mr O’Higgins said that was the sum total of the prosecution case against his client.

He said statements by one of the other accused, Sean Mackey had implicated Laide in the kicking of Murphy on the ground.

“Here was Sean Mackey, a man so deep he’s an actual kicker, he’s going to the jury and saying Dermot Laide was to the fore in that,” he said.

Mr O’Higgins said Mackey had been doing so to earn Brownie points from the jury by appearing to nominate one of his friends, even though Laide was not in his company on the night, just in the same school.

“The court will not be unaware that there was a certain friction between Mr Laide and Mr Mackey (during the trial).”

He said Laide could not have challenged this evidence by Mackey in which he was named as Mr A because Mackey had not taken the stand.

“It was so grossly in excess of what any other witness testified that its prejudice to my client was overwhelming,” he said.

Laide was also sentenced to two years for violent disorder, to run concurrently with his manslaughter sentence.

He sat in the court dressed in a grey suit with a purple tie, beside Desmond Ryan who is appealing his nine-month sentence for violent disorder in connection with the death of Murphy.

The pair were facing directly across the courtroom, where Brian Murphy’s parents Denis and Mary, sat.

Laide was supported in court by his girlfriend and Fr Aidan Troy, a family friend who achieved international fame during the Holy Cross school protest in Northern Ireland.

The case continues.