Pairs of shoes handed in by the two defendants as those they wore in the home of a gay US author on the night he suffered severe head injuries did not match any of the footprints discovered in the house by gardai, Sligo Circuit Court was told yesterday.
It was the third day of the trial of two Sligo men, Mr Glen Mahon (21) and Mr Ian Monaghan (20), who are accused of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Mr Robert Drake (36) on January 31st. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charge. In statements to gardai both claimed they hit Mr Drake after he made a sexual advance towards one of them but "at most he got three thumps".
Det Garda Tom Carey, from the ballistics section at Garda Headquarters, Dublin, said tests involving the use of chemicals on the floor covering of Mr Drake's house on Holborn Street found five types of footprints.
One of these sets of footprints found in the kitchen matched the shoes worn by Mr Drake on the night of the assault. However, footprints found in the bathroom did not match his shoes.
In their statements, Mr Mahon has said he was in the bathroom and Mr Monaghan has admitted to being in the kitchen.
Evidence was also given yesterday by Mr Darren Quinn, a quantity surveyor from Limerick, who was spending the weekend of January 31st in Sligo with friends. He said he was in Mr Drake's house the same night. After leaving his friends at about 3 a.m., he met Mr Drake who was sitting at his doorstep on Holborn Street.
They talked for about two minutes and then Mr Drake invited him in for a drink and he agreed. However, after some minutes inside "in the bright light of the kitchen" Mr Quinn decided he had had enough to drink and left.
Mr Quinn said that at no time during the six or seven minute conversation did Mr Drake make a sexual advance towards him. If he had known Mr Drake was homosexual he would not have agreed to go into the house.
A doorman at the Clarence Hotel in Sligo, Mr Peter Kearns, said on the night of the assault a man who fitted Mr Drake's description was at the nightclub. He noticed this man when the disco was over "rubbing himself against some gentlemen". He was about to ask him to leave when the man walked out.
Det Garda Paul Casey, who interviewed Mr Mahon after his arrest on February 23rd, said the accused told him he had nothing to add to the statement he had made voluntarily to gardai some days after the assault. Mr Mahon told him that he had given Mr Drake "a good hard punch" but he could not understand how Mr Drake "could have anything more than a broken nose".
The trial continues on Monday.