The widow of a man killed in a laneway outside his house in Ballymun three years ago changed her account of his death two years after it happened, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
At the trial of Mr David Dunne (25), of Coultry Road, Ballymun, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Patrick Higgins (50), of Coultry Grove, on November 13th, 1995, the jury heard that the circumstances of the death are disputed but that the events that led up to it are not.
Both prosecution and defence agree that it followed "a bit of a tiff" between the dead man and the accused's mother, whose families had been on "very friendly terms" before the incident.
In her first statement to gardai Mrs Kathleen Higgins had said that as she, her husband and Mrs Helen Dunne sat in her kitchen after a christening party for her grandchild, "Pat and Helen started to have a disagreement".
She recalled her husband saying he had never borrowed anything from anyone. He had left the kitchen and went upstairs, followed by Mrs Dunne. Minutes later, he left the house, again followed by Mrs Dunne.
She followed them outside and met the accused and his girlfriend coming back to the house. She told him his mother and her husband were "having words" and together they went into the laneway where they found Mrs Dunne on the ground. Mr Dunne then ran past her and "ran at Pat with his hands up". She did not know whether her husband was punched or pushed, but the accused had used his hands.
Asked why she gave a different account in her second statement, two years later, Mrs Higgins said she "probably was confused" and "too upset over what happened" when she made the first statement.
In the second statement, she told gardai that when he saw Mrs Dunne on the ground: "David then jumped in on Pat and booted him". It was like "a karate jump", she said, "David hit Pat with his two feet. He was jumping on his face and head with his feet."
Mrs Higgins told the jury: "I told the gardai the truth, what happened to Pat."
Cross-examined by Mr Patrick Marrinan BL, defending, who suggested that her evidence had been distorted by the passage of time and by animosity she now felt to wards the Dunne family, Mrs Higgins said: "All the evidence I've given in the court is the truth."
She agreed with Mr Sean Ryan SC, prosecuting, that her first statement, on the date of her husband's death "took a while" and was interrupted while she received treatment from her doctor.
"When I got the statement I said it was wrong. I told one of the guards and I don't know which one of them it was."
Mr Ryan's re-examination of the witness was interrupted by objections from Mr Gregory Murphy SC, defending, who told Mrs Justice McGuinness the prosecution counsel was now trying to suggest that when the trial was due to begin in June 1997, his own side was willing to go ahead with it knowing Mrs Higgins's statement was wrong.
Mrs Justice McGuinness concurred that indeed it looked as if this would be the inference, "that this lady said it was wrong but that no one took a blind bit of notice of her".
Her daughter, Ms Lorna Higgins, told Ms Isobel Kennedy BL, prosecuting, that she had gone into the kitchen because "there was a bit of an argument" and had "just asked me Dad and Helen Dunne to be quiet". Later, she heard voices outside, and when she looked out, "I could see the top half of David Dunne and could see the upper part of his body swinging as though he was kicking someone".
Her sister, Ms Antoinette Higgins, said she saw Mr Dunne run towards her father. "He pushed me Dad down somehow and me Dad's head hit the wall or the ground."
Mrs Kathleen Malone, a neighbour, said she heard shouting coming from the lane. She saw Mrs Helen Dunne and a man whom she then did not know was Mr Higgins. "I heard Mrs Dunne saying, `Go back in, don't be stupid, it's only a silly argument'. "
When she went to the front of her house for a better view, she saw Mrs Dunne on the ground. Then the accused and his girlfriend came around the corner. "His girlfriend shouted at him, `Dunnie, it's your Mam'. " With that, Mr Dunne ran down and kicked Mr Higgins in middle of his back. "There was a loud bang, I don't know whether it was his head hitting the wall," she said.
The trial continues today.