JAMES CHAMBERS, a friend of Finn Colclough’s older brother Anthony, told the opening day of the trial yesterday that he had spent the evening of May 25th at a 21st birthday party in Spy Nightclub in the Powerscourt Centre in Dublin city centre.
He had met Mr Colclough, his brother, and his parents there.
At about 2.30am, he left the club with the Colclough brothers and a large group of friends. They went straight back to the Colcloughs’ house. Mr Chambers said he went upstairs to use the computer then went into Anthony’s room where he remained.
He told Patrick Gageby SC, defending, that he lived in Fairview and was a neighbour of Seán Nolan. He knew the Sara whom Mr Nolan had been looking for but she and Mr Nolan did not get on. “She didn’t particularly like us because we were being anti-Semitic.”
He agreed with Mr Gageby that a friend of the accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Finn had drunk between eight and 14 rounds of drink at the 21st birthday party.
The girl, who was 15 at the time, told Mary Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, that he was the drunkest that she had ever seen him. She herself had not drunk that much when they left Spy and went back to the Colcloughs’ house.
She said that everyone was in high spirits after the party and she stayed with Finn and another friend in the kitchen. “We were making sandwiches and we were having a laugh.”
There was some marijuana at the house which she rolled into a joint. She and Finn Colclough smoked the joint sitting on the steps outside the house.
After a while they decided to go for a walk but only got a few steps before encountering Mr Nolan and his two friends. She told Ms Ring that the three older boys were very aggressive and she was afraid there would be a fight.
She said Mr Nolan and his friends were “waving their arms and being very aggressive” when they asked where to find Sara.
She had never worked out why Mr Nolan and his friends were so aggressive that night.
The girl said she and Finn and their friend went back into the house but the three others stayed outside shouting, “Are you having fun hiding in your house?” She said she went outside and told them to go away.
She went back inside and went upstairs to Anthony Colclough’s bedroom to tell the others what was going on. When she came back down she could see Finn outside the house. “He was shouting ‘stay away from my house’ and the guys then continued to be aggressive to him.” She had a feeling that something bad was going to happen that night. She did not hear the three other boys say anything to Finn.
She told Ms Ring that Mr Nolan pushed Finn in the chest and he pushed Mr Nolan back. She said Mr Nolan then punched Finn in the face before grabbing his chest and going backwards.
She saw him go back into the house holding a knife which he took over to the kitchen sink and washed. There was blood on it. She said it was as if something in him had snapped. “To me it wasn’t even Finn. He didn’t even look like himself.”
The trial continues tomorrow at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of seven men and five women.