A man giving evidence against his father in a murder trial told the Central Criminal Court yesterday that he pleaded with the defendant not to murder the man, but that in reply, his father punched him in the face.
Scott Delaney, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Mr Mark Dwyer, said: "I told him [the accused] not to kill him and he was boxing me in the face."
He said his father subjected Mr Dwyer to severe beatings with an iron bar, and that "after smashing him up that bad, the other fella was saying they'd have to kill him".
Delaney said he argued with his father not to kill the man, but that "he hit me round the head and said `shut your mouth, he's getting it and that's it' ".
Mr Joseph Delaney (54), formerly of La Rochelle, Naas, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Dwyer (23) on or about December 14th, 1996. He has also pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr Dwyer and detaining him against his will at Foster Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin, on December 14th, 1996.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Delaney murdered Mr Dwyer over the theft of 30-40,000 ecstasy tablets.
Scott Delaney told the court that he arranged the abduction of his friend, Mr Dwyer, from his flat in Foster's Terrace, Dublin, early on December 14th, 1996, but it was never his intention that he be shot.
"Me da swore to me it would only be a questioning," he said.
He said he went into shock after hearing Mr Dwyer being beaten in another room after the pair had been abducted by three armed and masked men.
As Mr Blaise O'Carroll, defending, read from a statement prepared by Scott Delaney in Feb ruary 1998, he agreed that he had told his father he was "after doing too much" to Mr Dwyer.
"He swore to me it would be only a questioning. He said `fuck him, he'll have to be killed now'. I told him to fuck off," the statement read.
After Delaney said that Mr Dwyer should not be killed, one of the captors said to him: "Look son, there's nothing left of him. You have to kill a person after leaving him that bad."
"I was freaked," the statement read.
Referring to his father, Delaney said: "He's the one that smashed him up with the bar and felt he had to kill him, not me."
Prosecution counsel previously said the State Pathologist would give evidence that Mr Dwyer died from a laceration of the brain due to a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, fired at "virtual contact range".
Stab wounds to the forearms and multiple wounds, possibly caused by a nail-bar, were found on the body, including imprints of a gun nozzle to the chest where a shotgun was pressed into the flesh. The case before Mr Justice Quirke and a jury continues today.