Witness tells Limerick murder trial accused told him not to go with deceased on job to collect heroin

Two other witness tell the trial of Lee Slattery asking them for a loan of €100

The witness said he knew Lee Slattery (pictured) from childhood.

A murder trial witness told a court on Thursday of the deceased offering him €150 to accompany him to a place where he would pick up three ounces of heroin in Limerick but being told moments later by the accused man not to go with him.

32-year-old Kurt Ryan of Moylish Crescent, Limerick, denies the single charge of murdering 25-year-old Lee Slattery on the grounds of Delmege House, known locally as the Dallies in May 2010. He is on trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of seven women and five men.

Keith Nolan gave a statement to gardaí outlining an interaction he had with the late Lee Slattery on the afternoon of Thursday, May 27, 2010. Prosecution senior counsel, Michael O’Higgins, led him through the statement he made to gardaí. 

He said that at around 4.30pm that afternoon he was outside his own house with another man when Lee Slattery passed them and called into a house nearby at Cosgrave Park. Five minutes later Lee came out and told Keith Nolan he was looking for a loan of a bicycle. Mr Nolan said his bike had a puncture and he suggested asking someone else.

Reading the statement to the witness, Mr O’Higgins said: “He asked would you like to do a job with him — €150 if you collected three ounces of heroin with him at Delmege House. In fairness to you, you said you thought about it but for €150, if you were caught you would be doing a three-year jail sentence or something like that. You told him you wouldn’t do it.” 

The witness, Keith Nolan, agreed that this is what he said in his statement.

Mr O’Higgins continued: “As Lee was walking away, a car pulled up, you said you were not too sure of all the occupants. You said Kurt Ryan was there. (Reading from Keith Nolan statement) ‘Kurt said to me I was not to go with Lee' – not to do whatever job he had to do at Delmege. Kurt said you were not to go on that job.” 

Mr Nolan said in the witness box: “He was 10 to 15 feet away. I remember being told not to go. He (Kurt) was adamant I was not to be there at the time.” Keith Nolan said he knew Lee Slattery from childhood.

Witness Kevin Lyons of Ballyanty said Lee asked him for a loan of €100 that afternoon which Mr Lyons did not have. 

Another witness, Aoife Lyons said Lee Slattery called to her house in Ballyanty that same afternoon, May 27, 2010, looking for a loan of €100 and she told him she did not have that kind of money. He returned later with €70 and asked her if she would have €30 and she didn’t. 

Brendan Jackson said Lee Slattery offered to sell him a dartboard that afternoon. At first, Mr Jackson said he was not interested but then agreed to give him €35 and a pair of shorts for the dartboard and that this happened at around teatime that afternoon.

The trial continues.