Victim's mother sobs on first day of Limerick murder trial

A Limerick mother cried in the witness box today as she recalled hearing her son being shot dead from her bed in the early hours of his 40th birthday.

Mary Crawford was giving evidence on the first day of the trial of a 21-year-old man charged with murdering the 40-year-old at her home in the city four years ago.

Jonathan Fitzgerald of South Claughan Road, Garryowen has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Noel Crawford at the house in O'Malley Park on December 18, 2006.

Mrs Crawford shook and sobbed as she took the oath in the Central Criminal Court.

She said her son, Paul, was still up when she went to bed with her grandchildren on Sunday night December 17. She said she woke to hear his mobile phone ringing and then heard two loud bangs.

She said she went downstairs and saw her other son, Noel, lying there. She said she knew he was gone and there was nothing she could do.

Mrs Crawford said Noel did not live there and she had not even known that he was in the house before she went to bed.

Úna Ní Raifeartaigh SC, prosecuting, had already told the court that the deceased and his brother, Paul, were standing outside the door of their parents house around 2am that morning, probably drinking cans.

Paul Crawford went upstairs to answer his phone and heard two shots. He looked out the front window and saw a male. Mr Crawford didn’t know what had happened and exchanged comments with this male. He came downstairs to find his brother had been shot.

Noel Crawford was rushed to hospital and pronounced dead. He died of a single gunshot wound to the abdomen, with the entry wound at the front and the exit wound at the back.

Ms Ní Raifeartaigh said the jury would hear from a ballistics expert that there were two shots, one hitting the front window of the house.

She also told the jury in her opening speech that a witness would testify tomorrow that she saw the accused with a gun before the shooting.

The witness would give evidence, she said, that three youths, including the defendant, came to their house in the early hours of that day. Mr Fitzgerald and one of the other youths were handling a shotgun in the house before the defendant left with one of the youths, the jury would hear.

They would say that they heard two shots before they returned to her house and the defendant disposed of his clothes.

Ms Ní Raifeartaigh said the shot gun was never recovered; the jury would not have any finger prints or DNA evidence but would have to assess the evidence of a number of witnesses instead.

The trial before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of five women and seven men is expected to last up to three weeks.