Murder accused killed friend for insulting his family, court hears

A Dublin man accused of kicking another man to death in a derelict mansion and then burning the body told gardaí that he killed his friend because he insulted his family.

Alan Walsh (aged 39) of 43 Edenmore Park in Coolock denies the murder of Dermot Sheridan at Red Court, Seafield Road East, Clontarf between August 8 and August 9, 2007. He also denies arson at the same time and place.

Garda Paul Daly told prosecuting counsel Mr Mark Durack SC that Mr Walsh arrived at Raheny Garda Station at about 3.20am on August 9.

He stopped to smoke a cigarette before going into the station then walked up to the front desk and announced.

"Guard, can I have a glass of water? I think I just killed my friend stone dead more or less and then I burned him."

Sergeant Brian Clooney told Mr Durack that Mr Walsh had seemed quite lucid when he agreed to give a voluntary interview, even though he told gardaí that he had been drinking since the previous afternoon.

Sergeant Clooney said that Mr Walsh told gardaí that he had "kicked the f***ing head off Dermot Sheridan" because Mr Sheridan had insulted his family and told him he was just like his father.

"My father is in a home. His liver is f***ed from the drink."

Mr Walsh said that Mr Sheridan had said that Mr Walsh’s family were all scum. "I completely lost it then. I hit him with about four or five bottles across the head."

Mr Walsh told gardaí that he had kicked Mr Sheridan repeatedly as he was lying on the floor. He thought he had been kicking him for about an hour but he had taken several cigarette breaks when he got tired. "I stamped on his face a couple of times."

He said that the more Mr Sheridan moaned, the more he kicked. Mr Walsh said he then gathered old newspapers and rubble and put them over Mr Sheridan's body and set fire to them using his cigarette lighter.

He told gardaí: "F*** him, I hope he’s dead. He deserved everything he got and I would do it again.

“He deserved it. Nobody slags off my father and my family.”

He said that he had known Mr Sheridan for years as they had grown up on the same estate but the previous day had been the first time in a long time that they had sat and talked.

They had been sitting in St Anne’s Park in Raheny for most of the day and he had given Mr Sheridan his jacket to keep him warm.

That night they had gone to the derelict mansion in Clontarf to finish their drinks with another man, Mr Fitzpatrick, but Mr Fitzpatrick had left when the argument began.

Mr Walsh said he thought that he had drunk between 12 and 17 cans during the day and night.

He told gardaí: "it doesn’t matter what I did anyway because he was practically dead from the drink and drugs."

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury of eight men and four women.