A former escort agency worker told a murder trial yesterday that she hid under a bed as her ex-boyfriend stabbed a man she had asked to protect her.
Counsel for the DPP alleges the accused murdered the man a month after his girlfriend finally ended their "on-off" five-year relationship.
The jury heard that her past as a sex worker in an escort agency was "a bone of contention between them".
The woman gave evidence that the accused pestered her with telephone calls before the killing. Ms Christine Hughes, formerly of Ivar Street, Stoneybatter, was giving evidence in Dublin's Central Criminal Court during the trial of Mr David Larkin (34), with addresses at Victoria Street and Arbour Hill. Mr Larkin denies the murder of a Ballymun man, Mr Michael Murphy (39), on March 21st, 1998, but admits a serious assault on Ms Hughes on the same occasion.
Mr Murphy was stabbed three times after he answered the door of Ms Hughes's house in Ivar Street between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. Ms Hughes said he was a friend whom she had asked to stay with her that night because of her fears.
The jury heard that after stabbing Mr Murphy, Mr Larkin searched the house and "hoisted" Ms Hughes from under the bed. All she remembered was the first kick, she told the jury. She regained consciousness in hospital.
The court was told Mr Murphy staggered 33 yards down the road before collapsing. The accused ran to his sister's house nearby and asked her to phone the Garda.
Ms Hughes said as far as she was concerned her past work had nothing to do with what happened. She tried to end her relationship with Mr Larkin on several occasions but came to feel it was safer to continue. A month before the killing she told him she wanted to break off contact completely, but from then on he phoned her on average eight times a day.
"It was constant. He would phone, threaten, ring back, apologise," she said. "He was constantly phoning me and I felt afraid for my life".
Ms Hughes said it was for this reason that she asked Mr Murphy to stay with her on the night of the stabbing. Mr Larkin phoned several times into the early hours of the morning. In one call "he said he was biding his time, and he was going to pay someone to slash my face".
Cross-examined by Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, defending, Ms Hughes said she was no longer working in escort agencies. In most of them she was a receptionist, though she would sometimes have had to have sex with clients.
She denied that three men who came "to talk to" David Larkin in 1996 included her brother-in-law. They were total strangers who had come as a favour because she was afraid for her life.
She told Mr Vaughan Buckley she phoned Michael Murphy on March 20th, 1998, and asked him if he knew anyone who could stay with her that night. She agreed Mr Murphy had answered phone calls from David Larkin during the night.
Mr Vaughan Buckley put it to her that the accused might have thought Mr Murphy was a man who had previously held a knife to his throat. Ms Hughes disagreed. The trial continues before Ms Justice McGuinness and a jury.