A YOUNG man accused of manslaughter has said he wished to “turn back the clock” on the night he allegedly hit a middle-aged Sligo man who died in a coma six weeks later.
David McCabe (24), of Cloonlara Road, Finglas, told his counsel in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that he panicked and ran after he “swung around and caught” 47-year-old Kevin Durcan outside a chip shop on Parkgate Street.
He told Mary Ellen Ring SC that Mr Durcan, formerly of Montpellier Drive and a native of Sligo, gave him “a dig” in the back of the head as he was crossing the street.
Mr McCabe has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing Mr Durcan after a single blow assault at a Parkgate Street junction on November 21st, 2005.
Mr McCabe said he told Mr Durcan to f *** off when Mr Durcan mumbled something to him as he was waiting to cross at traffic lights, but denied he did anything to provoke “a dig” as suggested by prosecution counsel Mary Rose Gearty in cross-examination.
Former deputy state pathologist for Northern Ireland, Dr Dereck Carson, told the court he did not believe the deceased’s head injury was the major cause of death.
Dr Carson told Ms Ring that Mr Durcan’s brain showed no bruising or bleeding, and that the bone break above his right eye would usually have no effect on heartbeat or breathing. He concluded that the lack of oxygen to Mr Durcan’s brain set in motion the train of events that ultimately caused his death.
He said it was possible that, when Mr Durcan hit the ground, blood from his sinuses trickled into his airways as passers-by rolled him on to his back to obtain a pulse, and that this caused the lack of oxygen in his brain.
Dr Carson said that had the deceased regained his breathing earlier, “he could and would have survived”.
He said the level of alcohol in his blood reflected in hospital reports would have affected the time taken to restart breathing.