Murder trial adjourned after accused falls ill

A Dublin murder trial was adjourned today after the accused man became ill in the Round Hall of the Four Courts.

The trial in the Central Criminal Court was due to resume after the break for lunch, when homeless man Stephen Byrne got sick.

The 36-year-old former alcoholic and heroin addict pleaded not guilty to murdering William Traynor (aged 70) in his house on St Francis Terrace, Bow Street on June 17, 2007.

Fire-fighters found the elderly man badly beaten that evening, after being called to a small fire in his home. A garda, who knew him, previously gave evidence that he was unrecognisable due to his injuries. He died two days later in Beaumont Hospital.

Earlier, the jury heard that Mr Byrne “saw red” when Mr Traynor sprayed the contents of a fire extingusher at him on the day of the assault.

Detective Garda Frank Tracey gave evidence of an interview conducted with the accused on June 19, 2007.

“I said ‘what the f**k?’ He was on a mad one. You could smell the drink off him. I was just minding my own business, walking by,” he said.

“I should have just walked away, but I had a few drinks in me. I kind of saw red,” he said, when asked by gardaí why he did not just keep walking by Mr Traynor.

Instead, Mr Byrne said he followed the old man in through his front door and punched him twice in the chest.

“I wouldn’t go violent. I hit him twice. That was protection,” he said in the inteview.

Mr Traynor fell after being punched, he said, and might have injured his face on the floor, which was “all broken up”.

“He bust his nose but my conscience got the better of me and I helped him,” he said. “I just picked him up and brought him into the room where the blankets were.”

Mr Byrne said the house, which was unfurnished, was like an ice box. He said the several gas cylinders were empty so he lit a camping stove near the injured man.

He said Mr Traynor hit him with a crutch while he was trying to help him so he left to buy alcohol for himself.

“He kept moaning and groaning,” he said of his victim’s condition when he left. “I just left and said f**k him. I just left.”

Mr Byrne said he rang an ambulance half an hour later, but didn’t know the address, so he went to a friend’s house and watched a film before falling to sleep.

When asked if he was sorry, Mr Byrne replied: “Yes. He provoked me.”

He denied taking anything belonging to Mr Traynor. When asked how two of the pensioner’s cards ended up in his pocket, he said he had dropped some of his own cards from his pocket, and must have picked up Mr Traynor’s possessions while gathering his own.

The jury was shown the blood-stained track suit that Mr Byrne said he was wearing the day of the incident. He had first said he was wearing different clothes.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of seven women and five men.