Murder accused 'started smoking heroin after death of baby girl'

A man on trial for murder has told the jury in his case that he started smoking heroin after the death of his baby girl, and was addicted to the drug when he killed 28-year-old David Sharkey.

Breaking down in the witness stand, Stephen Penrose said he wanted to tell Mr Sharkey's family that he was “so sorry for everything that happened. It's only now that I got off drugs I've seen how much of a mess my life was. I never meant for this to happen”.

The 27-year-old, of no fixed abode, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but has denied murdering Mr Sharkey on May 17, 2009 at an apartment in Parkview, Blackcastle in Navan.

The DPP has rejected the manslaughter plea and Penrose is being tried for murder at the Central Criminal Court.

Mr Sharkey was stabbed ten times after arriving at the apartment with an ounce of heroin for Penrose. The 18cm long blade used in the incident penetrated to a depth of 13.5cm and went through Mr Sharkey's heart, stomach and liver.

In his evidence, Penrose told the jury that he was homeless and sleeping in a tent around the time of the killing, and that he was in a “drugs relationship” with a woman.

He said they planned to rob an ounce of heroin from David Sharkey, whom he did not know but whom his girlfriend had bought drugs from previously.

Mr Sharkey arrived at the apartment in Parkview that evening with the heroin and Penrose told him he had to go out to his car to get the money, once the drugs had been handed over.

“He blocked the handle and pushed me back. He pulled out a knife. I tried to talk my way out the door, but he was demanding his drugs back,” Penrose told the jury.

He said Mr Sharkey “swiped” the knife at his face, and then he pulled out his own knife that he'd concealed in his trousers.

Penrose described pushing and shoving and said he lost control. “It was a panic. I swung the knife a few times and I stabbed him. I honestly don't remember how many times.”

He said Mr Sharkey fell to the ground and “everything stopped.”

“I didn't know what to do...it was pure panic. I decided to put him into the car and get him away from the flat,” Penrose continued.

He described how he cleaned up the scene, reversed Mr Sharkey's BMW up to the door of the flat, put his body in the boot and put his own bloodstained clothes in a bag.

He drove towards Dublin, smoking heroin throughout the journey and stopping to buy petrol, so he could burn the car.

But on reaching Dunsink Lane in Finglas, he was followed by Gardaí. He left the car at a halting site and made a run for it.

He got back to Blanchardstown where he rang his father for a lift.

His father, Paul Penrose, who was present in the court for his son's evidence, has told the jury that he was contacted by his son that night, and he drove him to Navan.

Two days later, the accused was arrested and “admitted everything straight away”.

Counsel for the prosecution Mr Paul Green SC, put it to Penrose that Mr Sharkey had never had a knife, and that he had lied to Gardaí in his interviews.

He suggested that Penrose “knew what he was doing” when Mr Sharkey arrived at the apartment.

Penrose accepted that he had bought the knife in Navan just hours before the killing.

But he said: “I'm after swearing on the bible I never meant it to happen...I went to rob him. I didn't plan to do what I done.”

The trial resumes in the morning.