A widowed mother of seven who saw her son stabbed to death in her hallway has alleged she was threatened by his two assailants when she ran after them, a jury heard in the Central Criminal court yesterday.
Ms Mary McCarthy told the court she ran out after the two men as they left, having stabbing her son, Noel (28).
"I didn't know what I was going to do when I caught up with them. I can't understand it. I just followed both of them and they turned left," she said.
"I was walking behind their backs. I couldn't hear what they were saying."
She told the court that when a friend of her son, Mr Mark Lane, ran out of her house and up the road, the two men, including the accused, Mr Keith O'Donovan, turned round to her and asked: "Is he going for the guards?"
Mrs McCarthy said: "I kind of woke up then and I said to them 'No, he's not, but I am'." The men turned round and started walking towards her saying: "Go on, go on, and then we'll be down for you."
She told Mr John Edwards SC, prosecuting: "I got very nervous and I started screaming then for an ambulance because I didn't have a phone in the house. I was screaming 'Please, please, my son has been stabbed. Could someone get an ambulance?'"
Ms McCarthy was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Mr O'Donovan (31), Spriggs Road, Gurranebraher, Cork. He has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr McCarthy at his home in Spriggs Road, Gurranebraher, on May 4th, 2000.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Butler today.