The bloodstained clothes worn by a gay American author on the night he suffered severe head injuries in an assault at his flat were shown to the jury at the Circuit Court in Sligo yesterday.
The clothes were cut off Mr Robert Drake (36) when he was admitted to Sligo General Hospital on January 31st. Two Sligo men, Mr Glen Mahon (21) and Mr Ian Monaghan (20), are on trial accused of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Mr Drake. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charge, but Mr Mahon has pleaded guilty to stealing a wallet from Mr Drake on the same night.
In statements made voluntarily to the gardai some weeks before they were arrested, both men alleged that Mr Drake made a sexual advance to one of them after inviting them into his house for drinks on the night of the assault. They have admitted hitting Mr Drake but claimed that, "at most, he got three thumps".
On the second day of the trial yesterday, Det Sgt Michael Reynolds said that when he arrived at Mr Drake's house in Holborn Street on the morning of January 31st he observed blood stains in the living room on the floor, walls and doors. A ceramic lamp had been broken. In the kitchen he saw "quite a concentration of blood on the floor, the walls, the worktop, towards the kitchen sink, near the fridge, and also on papers that were on the table".
The clothes worn by Mr Drake, including a red shirt and two Tshirts saturated and stiffened with blood, were shown to the jury.
Sgt Reynolds rejected claims by Mr John Phelan SC, for the accused men, that the scene of crime was not properly preserved because a file of pictures prepared by gardai showed that a bottle of washing-up liquid had been moved to a different position and a stool, knocked over, had been put upright.
Mr Phelan said the blood stains on the floor indicated that Mr Drake "was wandering around with blood pouring from him".
A consultant neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital, Dr Daniel Rawluk, said a CAT scan confirmed that Mr Drake had suffered a very severe head injury. The injuries affected `the whole of his brain. Before being transferred by air ambulance to the United States in April, he was in a very poor neurological condition and was not responding in any consistent manner to stimuli.
Forensic scientists also gave evidence yesterday of tests carried out on blood samples. Ms Harkiran Amrit, a forensic scientist at a laboratory in England, said DNA testing had shown that the blood in a sample taken from a house in Father Flanagan Terrace, where Mr Moran and Mr Monaghan had gone after leaving Mr Drake's house, was that of Mr Monaghan.
Dr Geraldine O'Donnell, a forensic scientist in the Department of Justice, said she had detected no blood stains on the clothes worn by Mr Mahon or Mr Monaghan on the night of the assault.
In his statement, Mr Mahon said his jeans had been washed between January 31st and their arrest three weeks later.
The trial continues today before Judge Anthony Kennedy.