A Garda sergeant told a murder trial yesterday he had made an error when he said a youth accused of murdering a Limerick moneylender had requested a solicitor.
The Central Criminal Court was hearing further Garda evidence in the trial of Mr Noel Kelly (19), who has denied the murder of Mr John Keane (26) at the house they shared in O'Malley Park estate, Southill, Limerick, on July 5th, 1996.
Sgt Con Horan of Roxboro Road Garda station in Limerick told Mr Michael McMahon SC, defending, that the accused man had not asked for a solicitor when he was read his rights on arrival at the station on July 22nd last year at 12.45 p.m.
Mr McMahon then asked the sergeant to read from a statement he had made two weeks after Mr Kelly's detention, in which Sgt Horan wrote: "The prisoner requested a solicitor, namely Mr Ted McCarthy."
Sgt Horan told the jury he had misread the times on the custody record. Mr McMahon put it to him that the real reason he was now saying that was "you realised that you are now out of sync with all the other guards".
Sgt Horan denied this and said Mr Kelly had never made a request of him for a solicitor.
The court heard that at 4.50 p.m. on July 22nd, Garda Ronan Higgins received a request from the prisoner for solicitor Mr Ted McCarthy. He immediately contacted Mr McCarthy's office.
Supt Patrick Boyle of Roxboro Road Garda station said he had visited the accused in his cell on the morning of July 23rd. When he asked had he any complaints to make, Mr Kelly indicated that he was all right.
Subsequently, the superintendent received a copy of a complaint made by Mr Kelly on August 26th last year about his treatment at the station.
The court heard of several entries in the Garda custody record of the detention of Mr Kelly, indicating that "all was OK".
Sgt Denis Palmer and Det Garda Dan Murphy both denied defence claims that they had been in possession of photographs of the dead man and a phial allegedly containing some of his blood when they interviewed Mr Kelly on July 22nd.
In answer to a defence claim that they had intimated to the prisoner that they would pour Mr Keane's blood down his throat if he did not tell them what they wanted to hear, Det Garda Murphy said: "That's not true." The trial continues today.