Witness heard 'loud thud' as Dylan McCarthy's head was kicked like 'a football', jury told

AN eyewitness has told a Central Criminal Court jury that there was “a loud thud” like someone “kicking a football” when 29-year-old Kilmallock man Dylan McCarthy was struck in the head, causing injuries that led to his death. 
It is the State’s case that Mr McCarthy died following an incident in a Kildare town in which he received punches from Sean Kavanagh, 26, and Calvin Dunne, 24, before he received “a vicious kick” to the head from Mr Dunne while he was attempting to get up off the ground. The jury has been told that both men have claimed they were acting in self-defence and that Mr McCarthy was himself “involved in violence” on the night.   
Mr Kavanagh with an address at St Mary’s Lane, Church Avenue, and Mr Dunne of Abbey View, both in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr McCarthy on or about August 22, 2022.   
They have also pleaded not guilty to violent disorder on August 21, 2022, at Dublin Road, Monasterevin, while Mr Kavanagh has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault causing harm on Eamon McCarthy, the father of the deceased, on the same date and at the same location.  
The jury today heard evidence from Stephen Donohue, who told counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Seoirse O’Dúnlaing SC, that he was parked in his vehicle on the night when “trouble broke out” outside the Bellyard pub.  He said he saw a middle-aged man who was walking away get hit with a fist from behind, knocking him to the ground. He said that the person who hit him walked back to the main crowd.   
Mr Donohue said he saw another male lying on the ground. He said that a man who was about six-foot tall with blondish hair “took a run at the chap on the ground and kicked him in the head”.  
He said this male ran for about a yard and a half before delivering the kick, with the witness saying he heard “a loud thud” that was “like kicking a football”. Mr Donohue said that the two women were “screaming, shouting, crying”, with one of them kneeling on the ground beside the man who had been kicked, pumping his chest.  
Mr Ó Dúnlaing asked the witness what the man who got kicked to the head was doing when he received the kick, to which Mr Donohue replied: “Nothing. He was barely moving.”   

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During cross-examination by John Fitzgerald SC, representing Mr Dunne, Mr Donohue said he saw Dylan McCarthy lying flat on the ground when he was kicked.  
Mr Fitzgerald put it to the witness that he had told gardaí there was a sign blocking his view of the man on the ground.   
Mr Donohue said there was a small sign there, but he could still see what was going on. He said the part of Mr McCarthy’s body covered by the sign was “probably the legs”.  
After playing CCTV footage, Mr Fitzgerald said that Dylan McCarthy was not lying on the ground but on his hands getting up when he was kicked. Mr Donohue agreed with counsel that the footage did not show a person lying on their back when they received the kick.   
The witness went on to say that he did not think he was wrong to suggest he saw the kick to the head.  
“I could see most of his body. If the sign was blocking any part of him, it was just his legs,” said Mr Donohue.  
The jury also heard evidence from Taylor Doran, who said that she was on the street outside when she saw an older man with marks across his cheeks and nose. She said he was spitting blood onto the pavement.   
Ms Doran also said she saw another male lying on the ground, with people attempting to give him CPR.   
“A woman with dark hair was saying he wasn’t moving and wasn’t breathing. She was hysterical, screaming,” said Ms Doran.  
A patron of the Bellyard pub, Edward Byrne gave evidence that he saw a group of five people in the pub that night, three men and two girls. Just after midnight, a barman came from behind the bar with kitchen roll and a mop as there was drink spilled on the floor.   
Mr Byrne said that he saw one of the females in the group trying to kick the mop, so the barman asked her to step back. Mr Byrne said that a taller man in his 50s stepped in, so the group was asked to leave, but they would not leave. He said that the taller man “got up into” the barman’s face, so another staff member told them to leave.  
“That’s when things got out of hand,” said Mr Bryne, adding that a staff member “got a box”, before a lot of other people got involved.   
“One of the lads in the group struck him, I can’t recall which,” he said, explaining that a “smaller fella” struck the staff member.    
The jury previously heard evidence from Eamon McCarthy that he was in the pub with his son Dylan, Dylan’s partner Aoife Talty, his daughter Orla, and her partner Glen Brogan.  
Mr McCarthy said when a drink was spilled, a barman came out and was cleaning the floor with blue kitchen roll when Dylan’s girlfriend said she would give him a hand. “She put her leg on it and he basically pushed her leg away and said ‘f**k away from it’.”  
Mr McCarthy went on to say that a barman "went for" Glen and that Mr McCarthy “got in-between” them. He said the barmen were “dragging” Aoife and Dylan out the door, and when he got to the porch at the front door, he saw a man who had Dylan “by the throat” and he was “gouging his eyes”.  
Mr McCarthy said he “got a dig into the back of the head” and was shoved out the door.  
Mr McCarthy said the next thing he remembered was getting up off the ground. He said there was a man walking down towards him who said: “I’m already after bursting your face twice, don’t come back for a third time”.  
The witness said he told the man he was going up to his son and the man then hit “a belt” into his face.  
The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and the jury of 10 men and two women.