THE OPENING of a murder trial in Dublin was told the alleged killer was encouraged by shouts of “get him” and “get the rat” before the victim was stabbed with a “butcher’s knife” outside a chip shop as a crowd of up to 40 teenagers “scattered”.
The jury at the Central Criminal Court was told the victim, Declan Gavin (20), Mourne Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, sought refuge in Abrakebabra on Crumlin Road, Crumlin, Dublin, after he was stabbed in the arm and chest leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Mr Gavin fell into semi-consciousness after the 3.15am attack and died in hospital less than two hours later.
Brian Rattigan (28), Cooley Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder.
Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, told the jury the State’s case was that Mr Rattigan was the killer and that when he carried out the attack he intended to kill or harm Mr Gavin.
Mr Comyn said that intent was “vital” to the charge of murder before the court. Mr Gavin’s heart was fatally pierced by the knife.
The court was told that Mr Gavin was one of up to 40 people in or around the Abrakebabra outlet in Crumlin in the early hours of Saturday, August 25th, 2001.
A number of women were arguing on the pavement. Witness Niall Hannigan (23), Walkinstown, Dublin, who worked at nearby Texas Fried Chicken, told the court he thought he saw men exchanging punches.
One of Mr Hannigan’s colleagues, Joe Duncan (53) from Tallaght in Dublin said he saw two or three parked vehicles outside Abrakebabra. When arguing broke out the drivers of the cars moved their vehicles up the street. He thought this was “peculiar”.
“When I seen the cars moving I said to myself ‘there’s going to be trouble’, ” he told the court
Mr Duncan said a silver or grey Nissan Micra then arrived from the direction of Crumlin, stopping outside Abrakebabra. There were at least two men inside.
A young woman went over to the car and began shouting and arguing with one of the occupants. She then kicked the car. A man, later identified as Mr Gavin, came out of Abrakebabra and walked in a “calm” manner towards the Micra.
Mr Hannigan said he had difficulty recalling the exact events because he had been involved in an accident that had impaired his memory.
However, he thought he heard one of the men calling the woman he was arguing with “a bitch”. He also thought Mr Gavin called one of the men in the car “a faggot” and said, “get out and fight me”.
One of the occupants got out of the car. He was wearing a black balaclava and was armed with a large “butcher’s knife”. The court was told the other men in the car shouted to the armed man “get him” and “get the rat”.
“He walked towards and stuck the knife in him,” Mr Duncan, a security guard at Texas Fried Chicken, told the court.
“It was a fairly big butcher’s knife. I seen the knife going in . . . the lower part of his body. Then he went down and he got back up again.”
Mr Duncan said Mr Gavin made his way wounded down some steps from the roadway back to street level and tried to get into Abrakebabra while onlookers “were shouting that he been stabbed”.
Mr Duncan said the attacker followed him down the steps. However, he then went to call gardaí and he did not see what happened next. When he came back out of Texas Fried Chicken he saw the Micra leaving the scene as people tried to kick the vehicle.
Mr Hannigan later told the court one man took a golf club from the boot of his own car and swung it at the Micra.
Mr Hannigan, aged 15-years at the time, said everybody “scattered” when the incident began because they initially believed the masked man had a gun.
“I could hear somebody shouting, ‘he has a shooter, he has a gun’.”
The case continues today before Judge Barry White and is expected to last for up to six weeks.