A man accused of murder told a jury yesterday that he could not remember the moments when he stabbed a Ballymun man in Stoneybatter last year.
Mr David Larkin (34) said he brought a kitchen knife with him to the scene at his ex-girlfriend's house as "a defence". He alleged his ex-girlfriend, a former escort agency worker, had arranged for him to be beaten up twice in the course of their five-year, "fiery" relationship.
At the Central Criminal Court, Mr Larkin, formerly of Victoria Street, Portobello, was appearing in his own defence before the jury and Ms Justice McGuinness. He accepts that he stabbed Mr Michael Murphy (39) at the home of Ms Christine Hughes in Ivar Street, Stoneybatter, on March 21st, 1998, but denies the charge of murder.
He said that when he came knocking on the door of Ms Hughes's house at 6 a.m. in the morning, Mr Michael Murphy opened it and headbutted him.
"I screamed at Michael to get off me and I jabbed him in the stomach like that," he said, indicating the jabbing motion of a knife. "I just wanted him to get off me." He then had "a white flash", he said. "I felt like I was walking around in circles," he said. "Then I remember seeing a flash of Michael. He was holding his neck.
"Awful things happened that night, but none of them was planned or intentional," he told Mr Hugh Harnett SC, prosecuting.
Mr Larkin said he did not accept counsel's suggestions that Ms Hughes had made it clear that she wanted no further contact with him. Neither did he accept that his 27 phone calls to her in the hours before he attacked her and stabbed Mr Murphy constituted harassment.
Mr Larkin has already pleaded guilty to severely beating Ms Hughes on the same night causing her to be hospitalised for two weeks.
After closing speeches and the judge's charge, the jury is expected to retire on Monday to consider its verdict.