Single stab wound killed ex-boxer, pathologist tells murder trial

A former All-Ireland boxing champion died "as a result of a single stab wound to the right side of the abdomen", the Central Criminal Court heard today.

The State Pathologist was giving evidence in the trial of a Dublin man accused of murdering Joseph Sutcliffe, aged 32, on October 13, 2002.

35-year-old Anthony Burke of Clancarty Road, Donnycarney has pleaded not guilty to the murder in the Fatima Mansions flat complex, Rialto in Dublin's south inner city.

Dr Cassidy, who conducted a post-mortem examination on Mr Sutcliffe’s body, told the court his death was due to blood loss from his stab wound. This blood loss, she said, was mostly internal, which explained the lack of blood staining on his clothes.

The State Pathologist said that during the exam, she traced the wound backward from the skin through the abdomen.

She noted four "through and through wounds in the small bowel" as well as "massive haemorrhage behind the lining of the abdomen around the right kidney". She said the source of the bleeding was a main artery.

Dr Cassidy discovered an "abnormality of heart arteries, normally seen in much older people. The right coronary artery was narrowed to a pin-hole". The left one, she said, was reduced by 50%, and this would have made resuscitation more difficult.

His lungs were also slightly abnormal. Despite Mr Sutcliffe’s ill health, however, she confirmed that the stab wound received was life-threatening.

The witness also found a lot of bruising and scratches on the deceased: "The injuries were mainly on the face, and fresh". She said they had occurred within the 24 hours prior to his death. However, she found no evidence of defensive injuries to his arms.

Referring to the stab-wound on Mr Sutcliffe’s body, Dr Cassidy said only moderate force and a narrow blade would have been necessary to inflict it. She was shown a knife in court, believed to be the murder weapon, and accepted that this could very well have caused the injury.

The pathologist concluded the cause of Mr Sutcliffe’s death was "haemorrhage and shock due to a stab wound to the abdomen".

Earlier, the jury was shown footage of the accused explaining how and why he stabbed the father of three. The video was of his official statement, taken a week after Mr Sutcliffe’s death.

The suspect told detectives he had visited Fatima Mansions with friends May and Anthony Cahill on Saturday night October 12. While there, Mr Cahill got into a fight with a man in one of the flats.

Mr Burke went in to break it up and hit Mr Cahill’s opponent "two boxes on the chin… I didn’t move him at all. I didn’t even flicker him".

He also noticed a man with a knife in the flat. This man was pushing Mr Cahill’s opponent, now known to be the deceased, up onto a sofa.

"You’re going to get it. You’re getting it off me," Mr Sutcliffe warned the accused, he said. "I just walked out of the flat then" he continued.

"I seen Ellen (May’s sister) walking towards her own place. I walked up with her and started laughing and joking with her. I thought everything was finished then. I thought that was it," explained Mr Burke.

The suspect said he and Ellen Cahill were standing outside her flat for about five minutes, when the man who was pushing Mr Sutcliffe up onto the sofa approached him with a warning.

"You’re going to get it," he said, according to Mr Burke. This man, now known to be Seán Buckley, informed the accused that he had received a text message saying as much. Mr Buckley then handed Ms Cahill a knife, said Mr Burke, who admitted taking the weapon from her.

A minute later, Mr Burke said, he heard another fight and went to investigate. Once more, his friend Mr Cahill was involved and Mr Burke intervened, separating him from Mr Sutcliffe.

"I didn’t know who it was ‘til I pulled them apart and then I seen who it was. I done him because I thought he was going to do me. I didn’t mean to kill him," Mr Burke told the detectives.

Mary Ellen Ring, SC for the State, delivered her closing speech this afternoon. Referring to the alleged threat by Mr Sutcliffe via Seán Buckley, she said: "If there was a threat, it was time to leave, get a taxi and go home while the threat was otherwise engaged". Instead, she said, he "voluntarily went over to the fight with the knife… What does that say about his intention?"

The trial before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of five men and seven women continues tomorrow, when the Defence will deliver its closing speech.