Witness 'saw murder accused carry gun from victim's house'

A Cavan man accused of murder was seen leaving the victim’s house carrying a shotgun the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Trevor McCabe (aged 35), Mountpleasant, Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Darren McGrath (aged 33) in Belturbet, Co. Cavan on May 20, 2008.

It is the prosecution's case that Mr McCabe shot Mr McGrath twice in the head as he slept.

Patrick McKiernan (aged 34), said he had spent the afternoon of May 19, 2008 with the accused drinking on a boat on Lough Erne, near Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh.

Mr McKiernan told Mr Anthony Sammon SC, prosecuting, that he had drunk "a fair bit" and fell asleep.

When he woke he saw Mr McCabe on the shore and he ran after him and tripped cutting his left elbow.

He told the court he suffered a "deep cut" that bleed a lot.

The court heard Mr McKiernan and the accused then went "spinning around" in his car, a black Civic Honda.

Mr McKiernan said he fell asleep again and when he woke up he realised he was outside the deceased’s house.

"I got out of the car and took a look around and I knew where I was, outside Darren McGrath’s house," he said.

He went into the house because he thought Darren McGrath was having a party.

"When I got up to the house I knew that there wasn’t a party. I met Trevor coming down the stairs and he said, ’Get out’."

Mr McKiernan told the court Trevor McCabe was carrying a "short shotgun" when he was leaving the house.

The pair then left and drove to Mr McCabe’s home in Dromore, Co. Tyrone.

During cross-examination, Mr Peter Finlay SC, asked Mr McKiernan if he could explain how DNA matching the blood of the deceased was found on his jacket.

Mr McKiernan replied: "I don’t know."

The jury were shown CCTV footage of a Lakeside Filling Station in Enniskillen, Co. Tyrone at 3.12am on May 20, 2008.

The footage showed a man getting out of a black Civic Honda and walking with a limp.

Det Gda Paul Cullen told the court the man in the footage was Trevor McCabe.

He said he was familiar with Mr McCabe having interviewed him several times following his arrest on May 28, 2008.

Earlier, Leon Frahill, a friend of the deceased’s brother Adam McGrath, said he had spent the night of May 19, 2008 at Darren McGrath’s home.

Mr Frahill and Adam McGrath had travelled from Cork to attend a motorcycle rally in Portrush, Co. Antrim.

On the way to the rally Mr Frahill said he met the accused, Trevor McCabe, and noticed he was walking with a limp.

"The first thing I noticed when he jumped out of the van was that he had a desperate limp," he said.

Mr Frahill told prosecuting counsel he had met Trevor McCabe several times before the shooting and that he "knew him well".

In the early hours of May 20, 2008 Mr Frahill, who was sleeping on the couch in the deceased’s front room, said he woke up when he heard a loud bang.

"My initial reaction was that there was a domestic or something then there was a second bang and screaming," he said.

After he heard someone "scurrying" out the door he looked out of the window where he had a clear view of the estate.

He said: "I saw two people running away, one smaller person in front wearing a cap and a second person limping. It was Trevor McCabe he was wearing the same clothes he had worn that weekend."

Adam McGrath, the deceased’s brother, who was also staying in the house on the morning of the shooting said his ears were numb from the noise of the shotgun.

He said: "I was just totally disorientated, there was a numbness in my ears after hearing the two bangs."

He told the court he was awakened by a loud bang at around 5am and rolled out of his bed onto the floor.

"I lay on the ground for several seconds, it felt like an eternity," he said.

When he opened the bedroom door he saw his brother’s child screaming in her cot and carried her out of the house.

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