One of the accused in the Brian Murphy manslaughter trial admitted kicking someone in the head during a fight and hearing his head "snap or crack", a taxi- driver has told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr William Quigley said that Mr Seán Mackey got into the front seat of his taxi and another male and female got into the back after his car was flagged down on Morehampton Road at about 2.45 a.m. on the night Mr Murphy was kicked to death outside the Burlington Hotel.
He told Mr Brendan Grehan SC (with Mr Edward Comyn SC), prosecuting, that when Mr Mackey got into his car he was "hyper" and began talking about a fight that had occurred outside the well-known Dublin hotel.
"I remember the person who got into the front seat was hyper. He began describing a fight that had happened that evening and said he said he got punched by somebody. He then said he kicked that person in the head and he heard his head snap."
Mr Quigley said he drove this person to his girlfriend's house just off Foster's Avenue before dropping the girl who was in the car to Westminster Road in Foxrock and the other man to nearby Torquay Road.
He said he could not identify any of the people who were in the car but Mr Anthony Sammon SC, for Mr Mackey, said they accepted his client had travelled in the front seat of the car on the occasion in question and that it was Mr Shane Fallon and Ms Lisa Dowling in the back.
Mr Andrew Frame (22) from Nutley Lane, Donnybrook; Mr Seán Mackey (23) from South Park, Foxrock; Mr Desmond Ryan (22) from Cunningham Road, Dalkey; all Co Dublin, and Mr Dermot Laide (22) from Rossvale, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, have pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 18-year-old Mr Murphy at Sussex Road on August 31st, 2000. The four former Blackrock College students have also denied committing violent disorder by using or threatening to use unlawful violence on the same date.
Mr Sammon put it to Mr Quigley that the court had already heard he drove another girl, Ms Jenny Hyland, to Donnybrook first. Then Mr Fallon received a call on his mobile phone from Mr Mackey asking that he be picked up, and he was near Sachs Hotel. The witness said he couldn't recollect this. "It was extremely busy that night and this happened at about 2.45 a.m. and I was working until 7 a.m. I had a lot of people in and out of the taxi that night.
"I later heard someone had been killed outside the Burlington Hotel and I contacted my brother-in-law, Det Insp Brian Sherry, and he said if I felt it was important, I should tell the gardaí. I went and made a statement and put down what happened to the best of my recollection." Mr Sammon put it to Mr Quigley that he did not use the word "snapped" in his statement but instead used the word "cracked".
Witness said that if he said "snapped", then he obviously meant "cracked". He said he also remembered Mr Mackey saying something else that he hadn't said in his statement. "He also said his head went soft. If I did say the word 'cracked' to the gardaí, then I stand by whatever I said in my statement. I just remember the guy getting into my car and he was talking 90 miles an hour.
"He was rambling and it got a bit hectic for a while. It was only after I dropped him off that I thought to myself 'what was all that about' and I thought that I should remember where I was stopping with these people." Mr Sammon put it to the witness that if he couldn't remember dropping off Ms Hyland first, which he also couldn't recollect when he made his statement two days' later, then his recollection of what Mr Mackey said could have been a misunderstanding..
Mr Quigley said: "When people say they kicked someone in the head it is not a misunderstanding. I was trying to take care driving, I was listening to the radio and just catching bits of the conversation that was going on around me but my memory about that is fine."
Mr Sammon told the court that there would be evidence that his client signed a statement admitting he kicked Mr Murphy when he was on the ground but not in the head.
Mr Shane Fallon earlier told the court that he had seen about four or five people trying to start a fight with Mr Andrew Frame when they emerged from the Burlington Hotel. Mr Frame received a blow to the face from a guy in a light-blue top and then a second blow from a person in a red or wine-coloured top, similar to the one that Mr Murphy was wearing on the night.
Mr Fallon said he saw the person in the red top punch Mr Mackey in the face, knocking him to the ground. He got up again and he received a second punch. At this stage the large fight broke out and he tried to move back.
Mr Fallon said that he then left in a taxi with the girls, Ms Dowling and Ms Hyland. They dropped Ms Hyland home first and he received a phone call from Mr Mackey, whom they collected near Sachs Hotel.
Mr Fallon said that when Mr Mackey got into the taxi he was "drunk, hyper and a little bit agitated". The trial continues before Judge Michael White.