Limerick murder accused: Garda was lying

A 21-year-old Limerick man accused of murdering another Limerick man in the city four years ago claimed a garda was lying when he said he didn’t find the accused at home that night.

Jonathan Fitzgerald (aged 21) of South Claughan Road, Garryowen has pleaded not guilty to murdering Noel Crawford in O'Malley Park, Southill on December 18, 2006. Mr Crawford was shot dead outside his parents’ home in the early hours of his 40th birthday.

Detective Garda Padraig O’Dwyer was giving evidence on the 14th day of the trial at the Central Criminal Court. He interviewed the defendant in Mountjoy Garda Station on November 24, 2007.

When asked about his whereabouts around the time of the killing, the accused said he was in the back of a van at Limerick Regional Hospital.

“I don’t know. I was stoned out of my head,” he said. “I woke up in my bed, a flash light in my face. I think it was one of the detectives here.”

Sergeant Pádraig Sutton gave evidence last week that he went to the defendant’s home at 4.15am on the morning of the killing. He said he looked into two of the three bedrooms before being asked to leave. He said he did not see the accused.

“My brother said: ‘Get the flash lamp out of my face’,” claimed the accused in the garda interview. When asked if the sergeant was lying, he said he was.

It was also put to the defendant that a taxi driver had given a statement that he had brought him and two other males to O’Malley Park earlier in the night.

“If that’s the case, you can as the taxi driver to put me in a line up and identify me,” he said.

He denied that his sister had told him about being abducted earlier that night.

“I thought she was telling lies,” he then added.

Úna Ní Raifeartaigh SC, prosecuting, has told the court that the prosecution will call just two more witnesses in the case.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of five women and seven men.