A murder accused has told a prosecution barrister it is \u201c100 per cent coincidental\u201d that a few hours before he fatally stabbed his friend in the neck, he could be heard threatening to do so. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is your spin for the jury, this is your big play,\u201d Joseph Lawlor told counsel for the State on Friday after being asked whether the sequence of events was a coincidence.<\/p>\n
Lawlor, of Hampton Wood Road in Finglas, Dublin 11, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Michael Ryan (51) in a car park to the back of the accused man\u2019s home on June 20th, 2024.<\/p>\n
The accused denied he was angry at being disrespected and determined to \u201csend a message\u201d when he stabbed Michael Ryan with a knife before \u201ccalmly\u201d walking away.<\/p>\n
Lawlor (39) said he was in fear after Ryan (51) broke in through his back door and threatened to throw grenades into his house. <\/p>\n
He said Ryan then grabbed a bag that had almost \u20ac4,000 in it, which the accused claims was the profit from the sale of 27,000 Zopiclone (a medication for the treatment of insomnia) tablets. Lawlor said \u20ac2,000 belonged to him and the rest to Ryan.<\/p>\n
Lawlor said Ryan walked back outside, through his garden gate and was heading towards the exit from the estate when he, the accused, followed carrying a knife in his left hand. <\/p>\n
He described swinging at Ryan with the knife before, he said, Ryan struck him twice with the bag. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen I swung again with the knife. I just tried to nip him and get him away from the house. Get him to f**k off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin White SC, for the prosecution, asked why Lawlor didn\u2019t just allow Ryan to leave. <\/p>\n
The accused said he had to scare Ryan away: \u201cHe was going to come back two minutes later … He said he\u2019s going to come back with lads.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lawlor described Ryan as a \u201ccapable and dangerous\u201d man and said he took the threat of grenades being thrown through his door seriously. He accepted that by the time of the fatal encounter, he was wearing a bullet- and stab-proof vest and had armed himself with a knife, while Ryan was carrying only a rucksack.<\/p>\n
Lawlor said he feared Ryan could \u201cpull a gun and blow my head off\u201d.<\/p>\n
He accepted that he stabbed Ryan in the neck, causing his death, but said he had no intention to cause him harm. He said he did not aim for the neck, describing it as a \u201cmillion to one shot\u201d and an accident.<\/p>\n
He described Ryan as his friend and accepted that in Garda interviews, he described the deceased as a \u201clovely man\u201d. <\/p>\n
White put it to the accused that earlier that day, he had repeatedly punched Ryan in the face and had strangled him until he turned purple during fights that were captured on CCTV. <\/p>\n
Lawlor described these as \u201clittle arguments\u201d and said he repeatedly asked Ryan to leave, but he refused.<\/p>\n
White asked him whether it was a coincidence that, in an audio recording of an argument inside Lawlor\u2019s home a few hours before the fatal stabbing, he could be heard threatening to stab Mr Ryan in the neck. <\/p>\n
\u201cStop,\u201d replied Lawlor. \u201cThis is your spin for the jury, this is your big play. It\u2019s 100 per cent coincidental.\u201d <\/p>\n
White suggested that Lawlor was not scared or defending himself, but was feeling disrespected following the earlier arguments and wanted to \u201csend a message that nobody threatens Joey Lawlor\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lawlor replied: \u201cOf course you have to say stuff like this.\u201d <\/p>\n
Following the stabbing, Lawlor was recorded saying as he walked back towards his house: \u201cThere will be no pineapples going through my door.\u201d Pineapple, the trial has heard, is slang for a grenade. <\/p>\n
\u201cNone of this would have happened if he hadn\u2019t broken into my house and threatened to throw grenades,\u201d he told the court. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A murder accused has told a prosecution barrister it is \u201c100 per cent coincidental\u201d that a few hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42851,16454,85429,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-297266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-dublin-city","tag-dublin-region","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}