A witness told a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday that he had only hit the victim twice during a fight on the night of the killing.
Cross-examination of the key prosecution witness, Mr Mark O'Reilly, was continuing yesterday in the trial of Mr Alan Rooney (29), of Curran Park, Balbriggan.
Mr Rooney has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr David Hammond (24), also of Curran Park, in the Green, Pump Lane, in the town on April 27th, 1996.
Mr O'Reilly told Mr Anthony Sammon SC, defending, that he had straddled Mr Hammond after tripping him up. He hit him two blows on the cheek. He did not know how hard he hit him but it was "not that hard". He got blood on his hands because his ring had cut into his middle finger. He wiped his hands on his jeans when he got up off Mr Hammond.
Mr O'Reilly repeated that he had not seen Mr Rooney's fists make contact with Mr Hammond during the fight he witnessed between them moments before Mr Hammond turned to fight him.
He said he and two other witnesses, Mr John Browne and Mr Paul Carroll, both of Balbriggan, had agreed to tell gardai they came upon Mr Hammond's body when they were walking up Pump Lane. "We knew he done it so we came up with them," he said, referring to lies told to gardai in his first two statements.
He did not talk to the other two men about the death or the lies between the first two statements and on May 14th, 1996, when all three went to the Garda and made fresh statements.
He did not know Mr Rooney had been charged with the murder at that time.
Asked about the stabbing of Mr Hammond, Mr O'Reilly said: "Well, I couldn't have done it". Asked what he meant by that, he said it was because "I never carried a knife around with me".
The case continues.