'Three other teens party to Polish men's murders,' court hears

The jury in the trial of two Dubliners charged with murdering two Polish men has been told the three teenagers with the defendants were an active catalyst that evening.

Patrick Gageby SC asked if one or more of these teenagers could not also be in the dock. He was giving his closing speech at the Central Criminal Court on behalf of Seán Keogh.

The 21-year-old of Vincent Street West, Inchicore has pleaded not guilty to the double murder of the mechanics on Benbulben Road, Drimnagh on February 23, 2008.

Pawel Kalite (aged 28) and Marius Szwajkos (aged 27) died after being stabbed through their skulls with a screw driver.

Mr Keogh’s co-accused David Curran (aged 19) of Lissadel Green, Drimnagh has admitted both stabbings and has pleaded not guilty to their murder but guilty to their manslaughter.

“Three other young people were party to almost every bit, two of them girls,” said Mr Gageby referring to teenagers involved in an earlier row with Pawel Kalite.

They phoned Curran because they were unhappy with the outcome and were then joined by the defendants, said Mr Gageby,

The teenagers cannot be named because of their age and the two girls gave evidence to the trial by video link. Mr Gageby described part of the evidence of one of the girls as chilling.

“(The unnamed boy) was on a mad one and he obviously wouldn’t leave it like,” she said.

“Nobody would,” she suggested.

“Two years after two men were stabbed to death, she’s saying nobody would leave it,” remarked Mr Gageby.

“Couldn’t the director have equally been putting (her) in the dock because aren’t those who encourage crime as guilty as those who commit crime?” he asked. “These girls and (the boy) are the engine behind this. They’re pumping it up.”

He said there was more aggression from them than from his client and suggested that they certainly weren’t trying to calm things down.

“It seems the plan was already set in stone as this party of five walked up the road,” he said of the prosecution’s argument about the journey to the Polish men’s house.

“This is a motley crew of rather hyper young people, three hyper young people, an active catalyst, making noise, not the type of circumstance where it’s easy to think clearly,” he said.

“This entire party of five, not two, move across the road to where the Polish people are. Before Kamila has any chance to retreat, David Curran takes a swing at her, she ducks,” he said referring to the victims’ flatmate. “Pawel Kalite is hit. In seconds, Marius Szwajkos is stabbed in the same place. It’s almost unique in the speed of it.”

He said that his client’s kicking of Mr Kalite in the face after he had been stabbed was what caused the DPP to take the case against him.

"Nobody saw him do this. The only evidence of this was his own admissions.

“The DPP has elected that the only charge to be brought against my client is murder of these two men, not assault against Pawel Kalite,” he explained. “Both received fatal wounds from the screw driver and the prosecution says Seán Keogh is as guilty as if he did it himself on the basis of a legal theory, common design.”

He said the jury had to decide if Séan Keogh knew or foresaw that a screw driver was going to be used in the fight and if he knew David Curran would use it to kill or cause serious injury. The jurors had to decide if the defendants had a plan and what it was.

“Did Séan Keogh depart from it?” he asked. “Absolutely, if there was a plan.”

He said his client withdrew from any plan as soon as he kicked Pawel Kalite, something he described as a ‘terrible, dreadful, wrongful,’ and ‘inexcusable’ act.

“When the realisation dawned, he ceased to fight,” he said.

He told the jury that nobody, including his client, could have foreseen what David Curran was going to do that evening.

“This was an extraordinarily swift and efficient homicide by David Curran,” he said.

He concluded that acquittal of his client on both counts was the only safe verdict.

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie has now begun charging the jury of eight women and four men, who will begin their deliberations tomorrow.