This article is from page 15 of the 2009-02-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
JOHN McGovern took out a knife to ‘scare’ Michael Doherty, but didn’t put any thought into what he did and didn’t remember making contact, he told gardai, hours after the stabbing.
Detective Sergeant Eamon O’Neill told the trial that he and two col- leagues from Henry Street Garda Station in Limerick travelled to En- nis Garda Station in the early hours of June 24, 2007 to assist in the in- vestigation into a stabbing.
He was involved in conducting three interviews with John McGov- ern – the first of which commenced at 3.45am that morning.
The young man told the gardai that he had been dropped into town by his mother at 3.30pm the previous day. He had attended a music gig at the youth centre in the town, where he met some friends.
He and some of his friends left the youth centre at around 7.30pm. They went to an off-licence where they bought alcohol and drank it at the Fair Green. Between the five of them, he said they purchased 16 cans of Dutch Gold and four bottles of cheap lager. He said he himself drank four cans of Dutch Gold and they left the park at around 9.30pm.
They then went to Brandon’s Bar at the top of O’Connell Street. He did not have any alcohol there and left a short time after. He walked to O’Connell Square, where he met some friends.
He said they then walked to Super- mac’s, where four young men were standing outside, including Michael Doherty – who he referred to during the garda interviews as ‘Martin Do- uaa
He said that one of the men said something to him but he did not pass much remark. “Then he threatened me again,” he said.
“IT was kind of surprised he would take on somebody as big as me. He hit me. I think he hit me four times altogether. At that point I took out a knife and I just swung at him,” he said.
Asked did he have the knife in his hand when he swung at Mr Doherty, he said, “Ya.” He said it was in his left hand. He had taken it from his pocket and had opened it.
He told gardai that he saw Mr Do- herty stumbling backwards and fall- ing and he then left the scene, say- ing he was afraid to be out on the Street, as two members of the other group were bigger than he was. “I just needed to get away from them. I felt if I didn’t, I’’d be beaten up pretty bad,” he said.
Asked in that interview did he stab Mr Doherty, he replied, “I presume so. Ya,” adding, “I can’t remember making contact.”
He said he checked the two knife blades to see if there was any blood on them, before dropping the knife near Brandon’s. “I couldn’t say where exactly,” he said. He then went in to Brandon’s where he cleaned his ear
and nose and spoke to some of his friends. He said he phoned a friend, who told him to go home as there were ‘Travellers outside the pubs looking for him.
He phoned his mother and then went home. He told the gardai that he had brought the knife from his home that day, but did not always carry it. Asked why he had taken it out of his pocket that night, he told gardai, “I really don’t know. . . to scare him or Sreyeeteis evn eroaa
He said the adrenaline had been high and he had been dazed after the blows he had received. “I didn’t put any thought or feeling into what I did,” he said.
He told gardai that he could not de- fend his face as his hands were being held back and Mr Doherty was com- ing at him again and he feared he would get a “cheap shot” at his face.
Asked what was going through his mind when he checked the blades of the knife for blood, he said, “I wasn’t sure if I had made contact or not so I checked the blades.”
He was asked how had he intended to scare the boy with the knife and replied, “Wouldn’t you feel threat- ened or scared if someone took a knife out on you? I didn’t mean to make contact with him. I wanted them to leave. That was the only rea- son I took out the knife.”
It was suggested to him that it would have been easier to walk away at that stage and he agreed. He later said, “There were four of them. They
would catch me. They would hit me from behind and I would be on the ground.”
Asked had some of his friends been in trouble with Mr Doherty previ- ously, he said that one of them had fought with him.
The issue of the knife was again raised by gardai during the second interview, which commenced at 1.25pm on Sunday, June 24, 2007. He told gardai that after he left the scene at Supermac’s, he put the knife back into his pocket. He later took it out, up the street, and looked for blood, before dropping it out of his hand, possibly on the footpath near flower beds by the Cathedral, or in the flower beds. He said the trip be- tween Supermac’s and Brandon’s was ‘hazy.’
“*T threw it (the knife) over my shoul- der. . . I barely remember dropping it.” Asked had he wanted to get rid of the knife because he had stabbed Mr Doherty, he said, “No. I didn’t think I had stabbed Michael Doherty. There was no blood on the knife. When I was outside the Cathedral I didn’t think I had stabbed him.”
He was shown a knife that had been retrieved by gardai in the flower bed earlier that day and asked did he rec- ognise it. He said it was the same col- our as his and a distinctive cross was faded on it.
He told gardai he was shocked he had pulled the knife on somebody and had never harmed anybody with a knife previously. He said he did not
know why he had put the knife in his pocket that day.
He told gardai that one of the other lads had been egging Mr Doherty on. Asked had he been knocked to the ground, he said, “Ya. I stumbled backwards but I don’t know if I fell.”
During the third interview – which commenced shortly before 8pm on the evening of June 24, 2007 – McGovern told gardai that the Swiss pen knife had been a present from his grandparents the previous Christmas or for his birthday in January. There were two blades on the knife.
He was then asked about comments his friend Kate McDaid had told gardai he had made, that Mr Doherty was a “knacker” and had “deserved ra
“No. I didn’t say that,” was his ini- tial response to this. He then said, “I don’t think I said that. I can’t deny it either.” Later during the interview, he said he found the comment “re- volting” and didn’t understand how he would have said it.
Asked had he taken drugs the pre- vious night, he said he had not. He said he had been offered cannabis in the past, but had never tried it.
Under cross-examination by Mark Nicholas, BL for the accused, Dt Sgt O’Neill agreed that McGovern had no previous convictions.