Jury told Limerick man admitted stabbing murder victim

A LIMERICK man accused of murdering another man told gardai he stabbed the deceased in the chest and stomach after being called a junkie, a trial heard this Wednesday.

Dylan Hayes, aged, 22 of The Crescent, Kilteragh, Dooradoyle and his co-accused Ger Hogan, aged 34, of Raheen Square, Ballinacurra Weston, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Shane Murphy at The Grove, Pallasgreen on April 30, 2015.

In his evidence at the Central Criminal Court, Detective Garda John O'Connell told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, that Mr Hayes was interviewed eight times at Henry Street garda station following his arrest. 

During the seventh interview Mr Hayes told gardai that he disliked Shane Murphy because Mr Murphy had called him a “junkie” and accused him of “goofing off”, which he said means being stoned on heroin, at the house in Pallasgreen.

He said a row started and he took a knife which he used to stab Mr Murphy.

When gardai asked where he stabbed Mr Murphy he pointed to his stomach and chest and said: “I stabbed him there and there.”

Later in the interview he told gardai: “I didn't kill him.”

The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of five women and seven men.