Witness denies lying about murder weapon

A witness at the Central Criminal Court trial of a Dublin man accused of killing a 32-year-old father of two in north Dublin three years ago, has denied that he lied about having a knife on the night.

Mr Owen Baker told defence counsel Mr Brendan Grehan SC, in cross examination, that he had never held the murder weapon on the night of the incident and had certainly not been in the kitchen of his sister's house trying to get it cleaned.

Mr Baker denied that he had lied about what happened after he was hit in the face with a crutch on the night in April 2005. He insisted he had not left the house to join the fight outside after he had changed out of his bloody clothes. He also denied throwing away a knife, from the same set as the murder weapon, which gardaí retrieved from the bushes nearby.

On Friday, Mr Baker told Mr Paul Burns SC, prosecuting, that he had brought out two "flick knives" to threaten the crowd gathering outside the house after he had argued with them earlier. He said he had never intended to use them.

Peter Dolan (aged 42) of Tulip Court, Darndale denies the murder of Mr Raymond Brown during a disturbance at Clonshaugh Drive in Coolock on April 2nd 2005. He also denies assaulting Mr Emmett Taaffe on the same occasion.

Mr Baker's twin sister, Siobhan Baker told Mr Burns that she had been in bed when her brother and three friends came into her house. She said Owen was covered in blood and had an injury to his mouth.

She said she initially went back upstairs to see to her young daughter and her niece before going downstairs and outside to try and move on the gathering crowd.

"I didn't want the fighting going on with my kids upstairs. Everybody was just milling together. Everybody was just fighting and screaming and shouting."

She said she had seen the accused man outside holding a knife but had not seen him stabbing anyone. She told the court that her principal thoughts were for the children upstairs and she panicked.

Later on she found the knife, washed, on the kitchen counter. "I picked the knife up in a piece of tissue and put it in a black bag." She then asked a friend of hers to take it out of the house.

Ms Baker told Mr Grehan that she and her brother were very close, "as close as a brother and sister can be." She had initially told gardaí that Mr Dolan had washed the knife but later told them it was her brother. She denied that she had been covering up for anyone.

Ms Donna Tuite told Mr Burns that she was in the kitchen of her friend, Ms Baker's house when she saw Owen Baker standing at the sink with a knife.

The blade was covered in blood and he had blood all over his front. He asked what he should use to clean the knife with. Ms Tuite looked for some washing up liquid but instead found some bleach on the kitchen window sill.

"Owen gave it to me, I put the bleach on and I handed it back to him."

She told Mr Burns that some time later Ms Baker asked her to take the knife away. Before she left the house members of the gardaí came to the door and she spoke to them, giving them her name and address.

"Actually I had the knife up my sleeve."

She then went to her mother's house and disposed of the knife in the wheelie bin outside where it was later found by gardaí.

She told Mr Grehan, in cross examination, that she had initially told gardaí that it was Mr Dolan who had washed the knife but had told the gardaí the truth in a later statement. She said she panicked when she learned how serious the matter was.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Carney and the jury of seven women and five men.