A witness told a murder trial in the Central Criminal Court yesterday that the accused man had told him to " keep his mouth shut" about what he saw the night of the killing.
Mr Anthony Buck (23), of Garrymore, Clonmel, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr David Nugent (22), of Highfield Grove, Clonmel, in the grounds of the town's St Joseph's Hospital. He has also denied robbing him of cash and goods worth £825.
Mr Francis Hawkins told the court that in a conversation during the night of July 8th-9th, 1996, he asked Mr Buck what had happened earlier. He said he had an argument with someone over in the field and that at around a quarter to midnight he was standing outside the gate of his house chatting with his friend, Lee Ahearne.
"We heard some screams coming from St Michael's fields [part of the hospital complex]." They went down to the wall surrounding the grounds.
They climbed up on the wall and as he looked down the line of the wall he saw the accused man getting off the wall, coming out from St Michael's.
Mr Hawkins said he and Mr Ahearne then got down off the wall and went to meet Mr Buck. He was wearing runners, blue jeans and a bomber jacket.
Mr Hawkins told Mr Patrick McCarthy, for the prosecution, that Mr Buck's eyes were "bulging out of his head" and were "pure red". "He looked like he was all pumped up," he said.
The witness told the court he and Mr Ahearne asked him what had happened in the field and he told them that "a patient was after getting loose and some doctors were running around after him".
Mr Buck had grass on the knees of his jeans, Mr Hawkins said, and "small bits" of blood at the bottom of his jeans near the ankles. He told them the patient had run into him and knocked him down.
Later, while he stood talking to his girlfriend outside her house in Garrymore around 2 a.m., he saw Anthony Buck go back into the laneway that was often used as a way into St Michael's grounds.
He was carrying something. "All I could see was the handle." Ten minutes later, he again saw Mr Buck, who asked him was he "having a cup of tea".
Apart from a red and black sports jacket with a symbol on it, Mr Buck was wearing black boots and tracksuit bottoms. He made tea for him in his kitchen and they talked and watched television for about 20 minutes.
When Mr Buck left, the witness said, he went out to put a cider bottle in the bin and saw the accused man climbing back over the wall into the hospital grounds again.
Next morning he met Lee Ahearne and another friend at Clonmel Courthouse. In the afternoon, they went into St Michael's fields with his dog. Along the boundary wall of the grounds, they saw a body.
The three men went over to Lee Ahearne's house and called gardai.
Mr Hawkins told Mr McCarthy that after the gardai arrived, he got a message that Anthony Buck wanted him. He went to his house and in his bedroom he told Mr Buck he had a fair idea that he "did it". Mr Buck replied that David Nugent "owed him money", Mr Hawkins said. "He told me to keep my mouth shut" and said that "if anyone asks, you and me and Lee were together all night".
The witness said he told him he wanted nothing to do with it and went away.
The trial continues.