A Dublin man who was stabbed at the home of a former escort agency worker he was asked to protect died from a knife wound, a jury has heard. The knife penetrated five inches into his body and sliced through a vital blood vessel. At the Central Criminal Court yesterday, the Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, said that the man, Mr Michael Murphy (39), from Ballymun, died from blood loss. She removed over a litre of blood from his chest cavity.
The pathologist said "only mild to moderate force" would have been necessary to cause the fatal wound. She agreed with defence counsel that the wounds were consistent with having been caused in a scuffle between two people.
Mr David Larkin (34), formerly of Victoria Street, Dublin, admits he stabbed Mr Murphy outside the home of Mr Larkin's former girlfriend in Ivar Street, Stoneybatter, Dublin, on March 21st, 1998, but denies the charge of murder. He also admits a serious assault on his ex-girlfriend, Ms Christine Hughes, at the house on the same occasion.
The court heard yesterday about Eircom records which suggest that Mr Larkin rang Ms Hughes's home 27 times between 2.23 a.m. and 6.01 a.m. on the day of the incident.
In her evidence, Dr Cassidy told Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, prosecuting, that there were three stab wounds to the back of Mr Murphy's neck, an incise stab wound to his scalp and a shallow stab wound to his stomach.
The knife penetrated almost to the end of its cutting edge when the fatal blow to the back of the neck was struck, she said. But she pointed out that the knife was very sharp and there was no solid structure impeding its path, so it "glided easily through the skin", slicing through the apex of the lung and a vein behind it.
She also noted that traces of tranquillisers, cannabis and the heroin substitute, methadone, were present in Mr Murphy's urine, together with enough alcohol to suggest he was "mildly intoxicated" at the time of his death.
The pathologist agreed with defence counsel, Mr Peter Finlay SC, that the three main stab wounds, and particularly the fatal injury, were consistent with "two people locked in a fight in a doorway".
Today Mr Larkin will take the stand in his own defence before Ms Justice McGuinness and a jury.