The mother of a man accused of murder has alleged that a teenager tried to have sexual intercourse with her two weeks before her son allegedly stabbed him to death.
Ms Noeleen Dillon, the mother of John Dillon (22), of Granby Row, Carlow, who is on trial for the murder of Warren Slater (17), was giving evidence on the second day of the trial in the Central Criminal Court yesterday. Mr Slater was stabbed to death outside a house in Granby Row on May 13th, 2001. Mr Dillon denies the charge of murder.
The court heard that at the time of his death Mr Slater lived with his girlfriend, Ms Louise Heary, and their six-month-old baby in a downstairs bedsit in the house in which Mr Dillon lived with his mother and his sister, Cathy.
In evidence, Ms Noeleen Dillon said she was "nearly being raped" by Mr Slater a couple of weeks before the stabbing. She told the trial her son "just flipped" after Mr Slater mentioned the alleged attack during an unrelated incident on the night of May 13th, 2001. She said she heard her son say: "You tried to rape my mother" and Mr Slater replied: "So what?" or words to that effect.
Asked what she meant by "just flipped", Ms Dillon told Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting: "Well, put it like this: I was after nearly being raped and then he turned around and said that. What would anybody's reaction be?" Ms Dillon said what happened next was "a spur of the moment thing". Her son went into the house and returned with a knife in his hand. She tried to take the knife off him, cutting her finger in the process, she said. He got past her and went outside. Although she did not see the stabbing, she saw Mr Slater staggering immediately afterwards.
Ms Dillon said "a couple of weeks" before the stabbing, she was upstairs in her sitting room when Mr Slater and his girlfriend arrived. Mr Slater had a duvet draped over him with just his underpants on underneath, she said. He told Ms Heary to bring Ms Dillon's daughter Cathy down to the bedsit with her, and while they were gone "he tried it on with me", she said.
Ms Dillon said she had been upset that night, and Mr Slater was sitting on the settee trying to calm her when he pushed her down on it. She "went off the settee" and he "came on the floor" after her and "tried to have sex", she said.
The next morning there were "lots of bruises" on her arm.
She said she told her son about the alleged incident, but he showed little or no reaction.
Ms Dillon told Mr Patrick McCarthy SC, defending, that she also told a friend, Mr Michael Kinsella, about the incident the next day. "Warren Slater came in and admitted it in front of Michael Kinsella," she said. Mr Slater then apologised for "trying it on".
Ms Heary has denied the alleged sexual incident happened.
The trial continues before Mr Justice White and a jury.