Witness at Cobh murder trial said he saw man holding a sword and striking another man on the leg

Witness Ron Ellis said he ducked down in his car in shock after witnessing the sword being used: “The man on the ground was shouting and roaring for help, the other man was gone. I got out of the car and approached him. I saw a lot of blood.” 

This evidence was given in the trial of 30-year-old Dylan Scannell, of O’Rahilly Street, Cobh, Co Cork, who denies murdering Ian Baitson in Eurospar car park, Newtown Road, Cobh, on March 19, 2024, but admits his manslaughter.

Mr Ellis said he phoned the emergency services and ran into the shop to get help for Mr Baitson.

Eric Thomas was working in the Eurospar and said: “There was a lot of blood. When I saw his leg it was mostly severed. It was his left leg.” He and others at the scene used a belt to make a tourniquet for the heavily bleeding wound.

Liam Leahy was shopping at that time and as an emergency first responder he went outside when someone in the shop said: “There is a man outside who has had his leg chopped off… It was a catastrophic bleed, I knew it was grave.” 

Paramedic Gemma Madden said when she and colleagues arrived in an ambulance they saw a tourniquet to the man’s left leg and they applied two more tourniquets to try to stem the bleeding.

Dr Hugh Doran testified Mr Baitson was in cardiac arrest and he and paramedics arranged for him to be ventilated with oxygen, given cardiac massage and have advanced life support drugs injected into bone.

Victim's mother's evidence

Also giving brief evidence on the opening day of the murder trial was Helen Goggin, mother of the deceased. She said her son Ian lived at home with her in Newtown, Cobh, and was at home that night with his son, and Richard Baitson, the deceased’s brother.

Ms Goggin said her house was about two minutes from the shopping centre car park. At about 8.50pm on March 15, 2024, she thought she heard a message ping on a mobile phone. Ian told her he was going to Spar and he would be back in 10 minutes. She began to wonder what was delaying him 20 minutes later when she also heard sirens. She asked her son, Richard, to go up. “I knew something happened,” she said.

Soon afterwards, Helen Goggin and Richard Baitson were travelling to Cork University Hospital where Ian received surgery and went into intensive care, but died four days later. The witness wept as she said: “They had to turn off the machine.” 

Prosecution senior counsel Donal O’Sullivan gave the jury an outline of the evidence anticipated in the case but stressed to them this was not itself evidence.

First, Mr O’Sullivan said for a person to be guilty of murder, they must intend to kill or to cause serious injury so in this case the prosecution must prove that Dylan Scannell intended to kill Ian Baitson or to cause him serious injury.

“The accused man in front of you pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not murder. He accepts he caused the death but he did not have the requisite mental element of intention.

“The events which give rise to this are on March 15, 2024, just over a year ago, at a shopping centre/ petrol station in an area of Cobh called Newtown. It is called Eurospar. It is alleged Dylan Scannell attacked and struck Ian Baitson with a sword causing his death. That is in essence what is alleged.

“The two men knew each other. It appears there was a debt owed by Ian Baitson to Dylan Scannell, being paid off bit by bit over a period of time.

“In the immediate aftermath, a mobile phone was recovered at the scene with messages from a WhatsApp conversation between Dylan Scannell and Ian Baitson. You will see the messages. There are voice notes as well. In the run-up to the events of March 15, the messages from Dylan Scannell are coming in a more threatening way.

“There is going to be a CCTV montage. At about 8.50pm, Ian Baitson left his mother’s home, which is very close. He went to the car park at the back of the complex, where there is one of these washing machine facilities… A car pulled up. A person got out and struck him with a sword. The person who was struck was Ian Baitson. The person who carried out the attack left immediately in the car.

“The Skoda Octavia was tracked by other cameras going to the car park. [Afterwards], it is tracked to various places. It returns to O’Rahilly Street but does not stop there. It goes to Connolly Street right next to the harbour.

“Subsequently, gardaí carried out a search in the Mall, Cobh, a shingle-type beach, and a sword was found [with a DNA match to Ian Baitson].

“The [rental] Skoda Octavia was returned a day or so early. A car mat was seized and blood which was that of the deceased was found.” 

The trial continues.