A MOUNTJOY prisoner accused of murdering his cellmate told detectives he killed him with “three digs, three kicks and a stamping” before rubbing excrement in his face.
Stephen Egan (25), Belcamp Crescent, Coolock, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Gary Douche (20) at the prison on August 1st, 2006.
Egan’s barrister, John Aylmer SC, said his client admitted beating Mr Douche to death that morning in Cell 2, B Base, but said he had a mental illness, which diminished his responsibility.
Det Sgt Mike Smith said that Egan, Mr Douche and five others entered the cell the night before, and were last attended to by prison officers at 10.15pm.
When the two officers returned to the holding cell shortly after 6am, they found Mr Douche unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 7.35am at the Mater hospital and Egan was subsequently arrested and interviewed.
Egan told gardaí that he used “16½ stone of anger” in the attack because he believed that Douche had “raped his sister and abused my mother”. However, he said he had “supernatural strength” and the digs, kicks and stamps were obviously “a bit too hard” because he had not intended to kill him.
“No one deserves to die in Mountjoy,” he said, indicating that he would therefore plead guilty to manslaughter or assault, but not murder.
“I probably dropped on to his chest,” he said, after recalling he was in a frenzy at the time. “It was like his neck was after collapsing and he was making noises.”
He told gardaí he told his victim to take it like a man and not to scream. “He didn’t,” he said. “I wanted to burst him.”
Members of Mr Douche’s family had to leave the court while Róisín Lacey, prosecuting, read details from Egan’s statement.
“I was kicking him into his head,“ he said. “A kick into the chest, like a football kick, like Ryan Giggs.”
He also demonstrated to gardaí how he had danced on the back of the victim’s head. He said his cellmates then covered his victim with mattresses and he put his Walkman on and went to sleep.
“Any chance I can get my Walkman back?” he asked the detectives.
The trial continues today and is expected to last another day.