Knife fell out of victim's pocket, claims accused

A Dublin man accused of fatally stabbing another man has told a jury in the Central Criminal Court that the knife had fallen out of the victim's pocket.

Gary Gleeson (aged 23) of Lisryan, Granard, Co. Longford denies the murder of 19-year-old Gavin "Sponge" Weldon on the evening of July 5, 2005.

Mr Gleeson told Mr Martin Giblin SC, defending, that he and his brother were out walking the two pit bull dogs he and his fiancée owned. His went on to describe his version of events.

It was a warm and bright summers evening. As he was crossing the road near to Molloy's Off Licence in Ballyfermot he heard someone shout: "The state of your pit bulls!"

Thinking it was someone joking he shouted back: "Yeah, I know" and continued crossing the road. He told Mr Giblin Gavin Weldon then shouted: "What do you mean, ‘I know’?" and started running towards him with a bottle raised over his head.

He said he started running but Mr Weldon was too fast and tried to trip him up as he caught up with him, kicking off one of Mr Gleeson's trainers. He said he let the dog go when Mr Weldon brought the bottle down on the back of his head.

As they were struggling he heard something fall. It was only when he looked down he realised it was a knife. Mr Gleeson said both he and Mr Weldon reached for the knife at the same time but he managed to get it first. "I knew I had to get it before he did," he said.

He told Mr Giblin that he had assumed Mr Weldon would fall back when he saw he had the knife but instead he lunged at him with the bottle raised and "that's when it happened".

"I put my left hand up to try and protect my head. I must have been forgetting the knife was in my hand. There was silence and he sort of backed away."

He said he saw one of Mr Weldon's friends starting to run towards him and he ran away because he thought they were chasing him.

"I only realised what had happened after, when I saw the blood on the knife and realised I had stabbed him."

Mr Gleeson said he threw the knife away as he ran because it "disgusted" him and used a brown paper bag he found on the ground to wipe the blood off his hands. When he got home he kicked his shoe into the garden for a similar reason. Gardaí later found it lodged in a tree.

When he got home he asked his sister to ring his mother and father and asked them to come home.

"It probably seems stupid but I just wanted my mother and my father," he said.

He told Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, prosecuting that he was not an aggressive person. He had only taken the knife because he was protecting himself.

Mr Peter Gleeson, the accused man's father, told Mr Giblin that his son had changed completely since the incident.

"He doesn't sleep,” he said. "He can't even talk about what happened."

He said the family had to move out of the Ballyfermot area after their lives were threatened and their house was being watched at night by people lying on the grass outside.

Ms Natasha White, the accused man's fiancée, told Mr Giblin that Mr Gleeson had lost his job as a goldsmith since the incident so they were now unable to save for the house they had been hoping to buy.

She told the court she was expecting Mr Gleeson's child in a couple of months and they planned to get married when they were 10 years together in three years.

She said before the stabbing Mr Gleeson was always joking and laughing. "He hardly ever does that now," she said.

She claimed he had put on a lot of weight and had become withdrawn.

"It's an effort to get him to go out anywhere," she said. "He definitely won't walk anywhere."

She said her fiancée had never been a "troublesome" person and had never been in trouble "except for a couple of road traffic offences".

She said she had never known him to be violent and in the seven years she had known him this was the only fight he had ever been in.

The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Maureen Clarke and the jury of 10 men and two women.