A YOUNG Dublin man was "slapped in the face" by the man he is accused of murdering, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mark Green (20), Tritonville Road, Sandymount, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Alan Young (19), George Reynolds House, Ringsend, at or near Brennan Road, Irishtown, Dublin, on March 11th last year.
Opening the prosecution case, Patrick Gageby SC told the jury of seven women and five men that Mark Green and Alan Young had been friends for most of their lives but on the weekend of the killing there had been "some unpleasantness" between them.
Mr Gageby said a group of young people had gathered on the Saturday night in Irishtown House pub. Alan Young "slapped Mr Green in the face towards closing time". Mr Green then went to a friend David McKeever's house on Brennan Road and he "appeared annoyed over the incident in the pub". Mr Gageby said that, later, in the early hours of Sunday morning, Mr Green and his friend were "fooling around on a scooter" when Alan Young arrived at the scene. There was a "disagreement" between them and the scooter "suffered some damage".
Mr Gageby told the court Mr Green "did not defend himself". He said that, after the two incidents, the first in the pub and the second on Brennan Road, Mr Green said "something to the effect of Young's life wouldn't be worth living".
He said Mr Green called Mr Young to the scene at some stage after those incidents and that he was "egged on to repeat the threat about Mr Young's life being not worth living". Mr Gageby said that "an altercation of the briefest type" followed.
Mr Green "stabbed Mr Young with a large kitchen knife through the chest and into his heart and Mr Young fell to the ground". He was brought to hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1.57am.
Mr Gageby told the court that the knife came from Mr McKeever's house on Brennan Road. Mr Green "brought a knife to a fair fight, unlawfully used it and succeeded in inflicting serious harm on the deceased". He said that immediately after the event the accused was "distraught with what he had done", that he met gardaí and accepted responsibility for involvement, explaining that it was in "self-defence or an accident".
The court also heard yesterday from members of the Dublin Fire Brigade who described finding Mr Young lying on his back with a stab wound in his chest.
Sgt Sheila Hackett, of the Garda Communications Centre, told the court she received a call on the night of the murder and was told that, at 1.33am, the accused had approached gardaí.
The trial continues today.