A 19-YEAR-OLD man charged with murder told gardaí that he flew into a rage when he saw his former girlfriend in bed with another man and that he began attacking him with a knife he found lying on a bedside locker.
Shane O’Riordan told gardaí that he and his older brother Gerard (28) had gone to check on the then 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at about 2am on April 15th, 2007, after she didn’t answer her phone when he rang her.
He had been going out with the girl for about eight months up to a few days earlier and they called around to her house where her nine-year-old brother let them in.
The court heard that Shane O’Riordan told gardaí that he and his brother went straight to the girl’s bedroom where they found her in bed with 30-year-old James Brazier and he flew into a rage and began attacking the other man.
“We walked into the room, myself and Ger – I turned on the light – I noticed there was another fellow on the bed in his boxer shorts and X was in her thong – I just flipped – I looked for the first thing I could find and saw a knife on a dressing table locker and I stabbed him in the back,” Shane O’Riordan told gardaí.
“I want to say I didn’t intend on killing him, I’m extremely sorry,” said Shane O’Riordan, who also confirmed in the statement to gardaí made five days later that he cut his fingers from the knife during the incident.
Both Shane O’Riordan and Gerard O’Riordan, from Arbutus Grove, Killarney, on trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork, have denied the murder of James Brazier at a house in Pinewood Estate in Killarney in the early hours of April 15th, 2007.
Yesterday the court also heard from a number of statements that Gerard O’Riordan made to gardaí after his arrest for questioning about the attack on Mr Brazier who died some hours later at Kerry General Hospital.
Gerard O’Riordan told gardaí: “We saw X and Jimmy practically naked on the bed. I turned around and ran over and I grabbed Jimmy by the neck and started punching him in the head.
“The next thing I know, Shane jumps up on the bed and starts stabbing him in the back, he just freaks out, like.
“I hit him a few more digs and dragged him out of the bed – Shane stabbed him a few times in the back – I turned around and picked up the chair that was inside the room, I came over with the chair and hit him a couple of times with the chair . . . There was a lot of blood around the place. I turned around and pushed Shane out of the room – I was in a state of shock and so was Shane, he was rattling and shaking,” Gerard O’Riordan told gardaí.
He told gardaí that as they walked out by the entrance to Pinewood Estate, he asked his brother “Did you see all the f***ing blood, what the f*** did you stab him with and his brother showed him a knife.
“I lost it, I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I got the knife and threw it in the long grass near where we were standing at the entrance to Pinewood,” said Gerard. He added that neither he nor his brother wanted Mr Brazier to die as he was their friend.
The trial continues next week.
