A Dublin man accused of murder was in an hysterical rage and then sobbed uncontrollably after he admitted stabbing a 17-year-old youth, a jury in the Central Criminal Court has been told.
Mr Vincent Flynn (19) of Kiltipper Close, Old Bawn, Tallaght, Dublin, denied that on May 2nd, 1998, at Killakee Walk, Firhouse, Dublin, he murdered Stephen Morris.
After his arrest, Mr Flynn "told us he had stabbed Stephen Morris in the shoulder and this was the least injurious part of the body to stab a person," Garda Daniel O'Connell, then of Rathfarnham Garda Station, told the court yesterday.
In cross-examination by Mr John Edwards SC, defending, Garda O'Connell agreed Mr Flynn was "out of control" and in a hysterical rage shortly after his arrest.
After he had been arrested and placed in a Garda patrol car, he was "no longer violent, just in a hysterical state and no longer trying to get away after being handcuffed", he said. He had been "inflicting injuries on himself," Garda O'Connell said.
Garda notes, taken shortly after Mr Flynn's arrest by the arresting officer, Garda Garrett Billings, stated that Mr Flynn said: "I stabbed Stephen Morris in Killakee. I didn't mean to stab him. It was only because he was coming at me. I stabbed him in self-defence. I didn't mean to stab him. I did it on purpose but I didn't mean to hurt him. I could've stabbed him in the neck but I didn't."
Det. Sgt Colm Featherstone of Rathfarnham Garda Station said Mr Flynn told gardai he killed Mr Morris but that he had had no intention of doing so.
"I had no intention of harming him. I just stabbed him because he shaped up to me aggressively," the statement read.
Earlier, Mr Flynn allegedly told gardai that he was "very jealous of anybody else" being with his then girlfriend and that he couldn't cope without her and that he "told her that".
The statement read out to court stated that Mr Flynn told gardai that on the evening of the stabbing he wanted to kill himself and "did not know what to do".
After running from the house with a knife blade hidden up his sleeve, the statement read that he made various stops before reaching Mr Morris's home.
After calling for Stephen Morris, "I took the knife from behind my back", the statement read. He then allegedly warned Mr Morris not to "go near" his girlfriend.
Mr Morris told him: "Why what are you going to do, kill me, stab me or something?" Mr Flynn allegedly said. "He had his face in my face now and I was very annoyed so I stuck the knife into his shoulder. . . . I had no intention harming him. I just stabbed him because he shaped up to me aggressively," the statement read.
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, told the jury that simply because Mr Flynn's then girlfriend said she fancied Mr Morris, the accused "stabbed him through the heart causing him to die".
Mr Gageby said a "bit of a row developed" on the night of Mr Morris's death between the Mr Flynn and his girlfriend, whereupon he fetched a hunting knife and ran out of the house.
Following an exchange of words outside Mr Morris's home, Mr Flynn stabbed him "once down into the heart" and he "expired on the street in front of the family home", he said.
The trial before Mr Justice Kinlen and a jury resumes today.