If victim hadn't produced knife he would be alive, murder trial hears

A Dublin man accused along with his brother of murdering a father of six in front of his wife and children, has told his trial that the man would still be alive today if he hadn't produced a knife.

Taking the witness stand on day eight of his murder trial, Jeffrey Dumbrell (aged 30), told the jury he and his brother Warren Dumbrell, had gone as “minders” to meet Christopher Cawley in October 2006, following an arrangement between the 33-year-old and their younger brother to have a fight.

Dumbrell said he was unarmed and his brother picked up a broken hurley on the way to waste-ground near the Tyrone Place flats in Inchicore.

When they arrived, they saw Mr Cawley and his two daughters in the field.

He admitted his younger brother never turned up.

Dumbrell said Mr Cawley pulled out a knife and said: “I'll give yis a fight.” Then Warren produced the hurley and went for Mr Cawley, who turned and ran for the flats.

He fell on the ground, but jumped up again with the knife and went for Warren, who smacked it out of his hand with the hurley. Dumbrell said he grabbed the knife and Mr Cawley jumped on top of him. They fell to the ground in a struggle, during which he stabbed Mr Cawley once or twice in the leg.

The court has heard that Mr Cawley sustained six stab wounds, three to the back, one to the lower hip and one to each thigh, the fatal wound severing the main blood artery in his leg.

Warren (aged 36) and Jeffrey Dumbrell have pleaded not guilty to the murder.

Cross-examining the accused man, Mr Paul Burns SC for the prosecution asked why they had confronted Mr Cawley when he was with his daughters.

“The traveller site was right next to (the waste-ground) where his family live. He could have just whistled and a gang could have ran out at any time.”

“If Christy Cawley hadn't brought the knife with him, he'd still be alive and we wouldn't be here now,” Dumbrell said.

“So having ran away, he then decided he'd have a go at you when the knife was out of his hands,” Mr Burns said. “Travellers are fighters,” was the reply.

Replying to questions about the stab wounds he inflicted, Dumbrell said: “I just went for the legs. Everyone knows if you want to kill a man you stab him from the waist up...I didn't think he'd die from stabbing him in the leg.”

“If you hadn't attacked him and stabbed him six times, he wouldn't be dead,” Mr Burns said.

“If he hadn't produced the knife he wouldn't be dead,” was the reply.

“You repeat that like it's a mantra you've learned off,” Mr Burns observed. “It's the truth,” Dumbrell said, his voice raised.

Dumbrell admitted he threw the knife away into the Traveller's halting site, and he and Warren went to a field where they burned their clothes. He said they panicked because they knew they had been recognised by Mr Cawley's wife and others.

Mr Burns suggested that he and his brother had gone to Tyrone Place with the intention to at least cause serious injury to Mr Cawley. “If we went up there to murder him, he would have stab wounds all over his chest,” Dumbrell said.

He denied that either of them had said “your daddy's gone now” to Mr Cawley's daughter as they left the scene.

The case resumes tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Butler.