Murder accused said ‘I’m after stabbing Jack’ before clutching holy water bottle, trial told

A 20-year-old accused of murdering a fisherman when he was a teenager was seen clutching a bottle of holy water moments after telling his cousin “I’m after stabbing Jack”, a murder trial was told on Monday.

Dean Kerrie (20), of St Brigid's Square, Portarlington, Co Laois has pleaded not guilty to murdering 25-year-old Jack Power at Shanakiel, Dunmore East, Co Waterford on July 26th, 2018.

During Mr Kerrie's trial on Monday at the Central Criminal Court, Shane Fitzgerald (21) told Michael Delaney SC, prosecuting, that he and the accused were cousins.

Mr Fitzgerald also told Mr Delaney that the day before the alleged offence he, Mr Kerrie and a third man had had been swimming at place called Badger's Cove.

The group later spent most of the day together before Mr Fitzgerald said he returned home about 11pm “to watch Netflix” before falling asleep on the couch.

The next thing he said he remembered was hearing a “loud bang” when he was woken by his mother at around 3am the next morning.

On looking out of the window, he said he saw a man called Christopher Lee shouting in the street: "I'm going to kill him. Get him out. I'm going to kill him."

The court heard that Mr Lee was Mr Power’s best friend and an eye-witness to the incident.

At that point, Mr Fitzgerald said he tried to phone Mr Kerrie.

“But he did not answer,” the witness told Mr Delaney.

Mr Fitzgerald then described walking over to Mr Kerrie’s house shortly afterwards.

As he approached the path, he said he saw Mr Power lying on the ground.

The third man, he said, was standing on the other side of the front door to the property, “holding the door handle up” to make sure no one else could get in.

“I went in and went down to the kitchen and asked Dean what was happening,” he said.

He said that Mr Kerrie was on the phone to either “gardai or the ambulance” at the time.

“Did he say to you that he’s after stabbing Jack?” asked Mr Delaney.

“Yes,” the witness replied.

When gardaí arrived, “Dean was standing in the corner of the kitchen with a bottle of holy water in his hand”, Mr Fitzgerald said.

Mr Fitzgerald also agreed with Mr Delaney that he told gardaí he had spotted a knife with a black and white handle lying on the floor of the house when he arrived, and was told not to pick it up by the accused.

Oliver Reilly, an assistant chief ambulance officer with the National Ambulance Service (NAS) who was living in Dunmore East at the time of the incident, later told Mr Delaney that he received a call from the NAS control room at 3.55am to inform him there had been a stabbing in the Shanakiel estate.

When he arrived at the scene, he said there were two gardai already there who were performing CPR “on a patient who was lying on the ground”.

“I observed a wound on the chest and placed a dressing on it,” Mr Reilly continued.

“ The patient was unconscious. He had no pulse and wasn’t breathing.”

Mr Reilly said the patient displayed no vital signs during the subsequent ambulance journey to hospital.

“There was no output, there was no heartbeat,” he said.

The patient, Mr Reilly said, was later identified to him by gardai as being Jack Power.

The trial before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon continues.