Murder accused was 'screaming like a lunatic', court hears

A Dublin man accused of murder was “screaming like a lunatic” on the night of the alleged crime, the Central Criminal Court has heard today.

Anthony O’Reilly (aged 22) with an address at Cleggan Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin, is charged with the murder of Daniel McDonald (aged 21) on Main Street, Arklow on February 2, 2007.

O’Reilly has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr McDonald, dangerous driving causing the death of Mr McDonald and intentionally or recklessly grabbing the steering wheel of Jenny Tobin’s car causing it to swerve in the direction of Mr McDonald.

Cassandra Dunbar told Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins and the jury that she was on Arklow’s Main St that night with her friend Samantha Fowles. She said they were standing beside a car belonging to Jenny Tobin when Mr O’Reilly came running down the road toward them.

She said he was “cracking up” and asking a friend of his, Keith Ennis, for a set of car keys.

“Anto [O’Reilly] was screaming like a lunatic,” she said.

Previously, the court heard that a fight had broken out earlier that night between the accused and the deceased in Rascals nightclub before they were thrown out by bouncers.

Ms Dunbar told the court that she heard Mr O’Reilly shout: “You don’t know who you’re messing with. I know where your gaff is and I’ll f***ing kill you”, and that these words were directed at Mr McDonald.

She said that Mr O’Reilly ran toward them and jumped in on top of Samantha, who was in the passenger seat, and that Mr McDonald then tried to get at Mr O’Reilly through the window, which was open a bit.

She then saw the car driving up the road with Mr McDonald attached to it, his foot stuck in the window. She saw his friend running alongside the car, holding him by the waist, trying to pull him out.

Ms Dunbar said that, later on, she was standing on the road when a red Honda civic sped by. She said that her friend pulled her in off the road. “If she didn’t take me in off the road, the car would have hit me.”

She said that she then heard a loud bang and looked up the street to see “glass going everywhere and people screaming”. She said that she saw Mr O’Reilly get out of the car.

“He had no T-shirt on, had blood dripping down the right side of his face and he just legged it.”

Earlier, Zoe Walker, an Arklow native, told prosecuting counsel Mr Patrick Marinan SC that she was in Rascals nightclub that night and saw Mr O’Reilly and Mr McDonald ejected from the nightclub.

Ms Walker said that then went outside and saw Mr O’Reilly. “By the time I got there, he was shouting, ‘He’s made a fool of me’.”

This was in reference to Mr McDonald, she said.

Ms Walker said that she and Orla Twomey, a friend of hers, were telling Mr O’Reilly “to calm down, to cop on” when he pushed Ms Twomey back by her neck and told her to get out of the way.

“We thought he was stupid.”

Ms Walker told the court that she saw Mr O’Reilly jump into a car belonging to Jenny Tobin.

She said that a few minutes later she saw the car coming back down the street and swerve toward Mr McDonald.

“It was like someone had pushed the wheel and someone had grabbed it back.” She said that the car was “only a couple of inches” from Mr McDonald.

Ms Walker said that about ten minutes after that she saw a red car go past her. “So fast I hardly seen it.”

She said Mr O’Reilly was driving the car and that she heard “shouting and a loud bang”. When the car stopped she saw Mr O’Reilly get out. “He looked startled and legged it down the street,” she said.

It was then she realised someone had been knocked down, she said.

The trial continues today.