The teenager, who killed two Polish mechanics by stabbing them in their heads with a screwdriver, told gardaí that he had seen his co-accused carry out the stabbings.
David Curran (19) of Lissadel Green, Drimnagh was being interviewed days after attacking Pawel Kalite (28) and Marius Szwajkos (27) outside their home on Benbulben Road, Drimnagh.
He has since pleaded guilty to their manslaughter, admitting that he was the only person who carried out the stabbings. He has pleaded not guilty to their murder on February 23rd, 2008, relying on the defence of provocation.
Seán Keogh (21) of Vincent Street West, Inchicore has pleaded not guilty to the double murder. He is being tried under the joint enterprise law.
Detective Garda Eamonn Maloney told their trial at the Central Criminal Court that he arrested David Curran four days after the stabbings. Gardaí had gone to his door a couple of hours after the attack but he was already in hiding.
Curran first denied any involvement in the attack, but towards the end of seven interviews he nominated Seán Keogh as the stabber, saying that he (Curran) threw punches.
He denied being with Seán Keogh and was asked if Mr Keogh was his friend.
“No. More of an enemy,” he said in his fourth interview.
“Seán Keogh told us you were the man we were looking for,” said a detective in his fifth interview.
“The other way around,” he replied.
“Did you actually see Seán Keogh stab them?” he was asked in his final interview.
“Sure did. I was standing right beside him,” he said. “He stuck the screwdriver into his head around the temple area,” he said of the first Polish man.
Curran said that he (Curran) punched a second Polish man who came out.
“He went straight for Seán for hitting his friend,” he said. “Seán stuck the screw driver in his throat.”
Curran said there were two reasons why he didn’t immediately admit this to gardaí.
“One, there was a life sentence on my head and two I’d be put down as a rat,” he said. “But I’d rather be put down as a rat than a murderer.”
Curran was 17 at the time and his mother accompanied him during one of the interviews, with a youth worker attending all others.
Earlier Keith Fitzgerald told the court that his moped was taken from outside the Marble Arch bar in Drimnagh about 5pm on the day of the killings.
“There were two bottles of wine and a screw driver with black and yellow stripes,” he said of the contents of the moped.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and a jury of eight women and four men.