A MAN on trial for murdering a man before putting the body in the boot of a car broke down in tears in the witness stand yesterday.
Stephen Penrose told the jury that he started taking heroin after the death of his daughter, and was addicted to the drug when he killed David Sharkey (28).
He said he wanted to tell Mr Sharkey’s family that he was “so sorry for everything that happened. It’s only now that I got off drugs I’ve seen how much of a mess my life was. I never meant for this to happen.”
The 27-year-old, of no fixed abode, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but has denied murdering Mr Sharkey on May 17th, 2009 at an apartment in Parkview, Blackcastle, in Navan.
The DPP has rejected the manslaughter plea and Penrose is being tried for murder at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Sharkey was stabbed 10 times after arriving at the apartment with an ounce of heroin for Penrose. The 18cm-long blade used in the incident penetrated to a depth of 13.5cm and went through Mr Sharkey’s heart, stomach and liver.
In his evidence, Penrose told the jury he was homeless and sleeping in a tent at about the time of the killing, and that he was in a “drugs relationship” with a woman.
He said they planned to steal an ounce of heroin from Mr Sharkey, whom he did not know but whom his girlfriend had bought drugs from previously. Mr Sharkey arrived at the apartment in Parkview that evening with the heroin, and Penrose told him he had to go out to his car to get the money, once the drugs had been handed over.
“He blocked the handle and pushed me back. He pulled out a knife. I tried to talk my way out the door, but he was demanding his drugs back,” Penrose told the jury.
He said Mr Sharkey “swiped” the knife, and then he pulled out his own knife that he’d concealed in his trousers. “It was a panic. I swung the knife a few times and I stabbed him. I honestly don’t remember how many times.”
He said Mr Sharkey fell to the ground and “everything stopped”. “I didn’t know what to do . . . it was pure panic. I decided to put him into the car and get him away from the flat,” Penrose continued.
He described how he cleaned up the scene, reversed Mr Sharkey’s BMW up to the door of the flat, put his body in the boot and put his own bloodstained clothes in a bag. He drove towards Dublin, smoking heroin throughout the journey, and stopping to buy petrol so he could burn the car.
On reaching Dunsink Lane in Finglas, he was followed by gardaí. He left the car at a halting site and made a run for it.
He got back to Blanchardstown, where he rang his father for a lift.
Two days later, the accused was arrested and “admitted everything straight away”.
The trial resumes today.