A CORK teenage boy told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that his father and another man kidnapped him from his foster parents' home and detained him for three days against his will.
Christopher Murphy described show his father attacked his foster sister with an "axe" after she threw a table at the intruders. He used a poker to defend his then teenage foster sister, but was bundled across a soccer pitch and into a car, which was driven to a house in Mallow.
The 13 year old secondary school student told prosecuting counsel, Mr Niall Durnin, that his sister and brother were in that house, but on the following day he was driven to a farmhouse near Knocknaheeney in Cork city, where gardai found him.
He told Judge Gerard Buchanan that his father had also kidnapped him from school on a previous occasion. After that incident he had been fostered with the Cunningham family at Knocknaheeney. He was always aware that the accused man was his father, but he did not want to be with him.
Mr Michael Murphy (50), of Riverview Heights, Blarney, denies charges of kidnapping and detaining his son, Christopher, on December 14th, 1991. He also denies assaulting Ms Theresa Cunningham, occasioning her actual bodily harm, on the same date.
Mr Durnin said that the boy had been put into care in 1990 by order of Cork District Court. The Southern Health Board placed him in legal fosterage with Mrs Cunningham on foot of the order.
Ms Theresa Cunningham said that on December 14th, 1991, she was watching television when she heard noise in the kitchen. She went to investigate and was confronted by the accused man and Mr Patrick O'Leary. She ordered them out, but they refused to leave.
She told Mr Durnin that her parents had earlier gone out. The only others in the house were her foster brother, Christopher, who was watching television with her, and her late brother, Anthony, who was in bed upstairs.
Ms Cunningham claimed that Mr Michael Murphy pulled off her jumper and vest and tried to remove her bra. She said that he struck her with his fist in the right eye, and then struck her head twice with a hatchet. He kicked her feet, which knocked her to floor, where she was again kicked.
Ms Cunningham told Mr Durnin that she blacked out. When she came to, she saw the accused man take Christopher away. The telephone wire had been cut, so she alerted the gardai and her mother from a neighbour's house. Gardai brought her to hospital, where she was x rayed and given a sling, but not detained.
Replying to Mr Brendan Grehan, defending, she denied that she had a boyfriend with her who had assaulted Christopher. She also denied that her late brother, Anthony, had gone to the accused man to tell him about that and that Anthony had let Mr Murphy into their house.
The trial continues today.