Cork Murder Trial Opens

A jury will hear that a 59 year old man, who had fallen on hard times, died from mechanical asphyxia when he was thrown down a rubbish chute at an apartment complex in Cork city, a prosecution counsel told the opening day of a murder trial.

Patrick McGrath SC said that the jury would hear evidence that Liam Manley died from asphyxia when he was thrown down the rubbish chute only to get caught in the chute at the Garden City Apartments, North Main Street in Cork on May 12^th 2013.

David O’Loughlin, (32) a native of Shannon in Co Clare but with an address at Garden City Apartments, North Main Street, Cork, pleaded not guilty today at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork to a charge of murdering Liam Manley at Garden City Apartments, North Main St, Cork, on May 12th 2013.

Opening the state’s case to the jury of five men and seven women, Mr McGrath gave them an outline of the evidence that the state would call in the case as he explained that Mr Manley was not known to the accused at the time that they met in the early hours of May 12^th 2013 in Cork city centre.

“The deceased was a man who had worked a fair bit in his life but he had fallen on hard times. He developed a drink problem. At the time of his death he was effectively an alcoholic,” said Mr McGrath, adding Mr Manley initially helped out at Cork Simon but ultimately became dependent on the charity.

Mr McGrath said that the jury would hear evidence that Mr Manley met the accused at around 4am on the morning of May 12^th, a Sunday, and returned to Mr O’Loughlin’s apartment on the top floor of the City Garden Apartment Complex which is above the Gate Cinema.

Both Mr Manley and Mr O’Loughlin had been drinking heavily that night before they returned to Mr O’Loughlin’s apartment where they were joined at around 6am by an acquaintance of Mr O’Loughlin’s, David O’Mahony, who had also been drinking and who described Mr Manley as “an older, quiet man”.

In his outline of the anticipated evidence, Mr McGrath told the jury that they would hear that “verbal abuse began being directed at the deceased by the accused and this quickly developed into physical assault, the accused punching the deceased in the face.”

He said that they would hear evidence that Mr O’Mahony asked Mr O’Loughlin to desist but he was told to shut up and sit down and the dispute ended with Mr Manley being dragged out of the apartment by Mr O’Loughlin before Mr O’Mahony heard a steel door clanging shut outside the apartment.

The state would allege that this steel door was the door to a rubbish chute leading to a rubbish bin in the basement and it would be the state’s case that Mr O’Loughlin threw Mr Manley, who was a small man, standing 5 ft 4 inches tall and being of slight build, down the rubbish chute.

He said the jury would hear evidence from Mr O’Mahony that Mr O’Loughlin told him when he returned to the apartment that “the man was down the drain” and the pathologist evidence would show that Mr Manely suffered a gruesome death from mechanical asphyxia after he became wedged in the chute.

He said that the jury would hear evidence from maintenance man at the City Garden Apartment complex Michael Forde that he was alerted to a blockage in the chute that was curved near the end and served as a rubbish chute for apartments on several floors and he got some rods to try and clear it.

“Mr Forde noticed a copious amount of red liquid which he thought at first was some kind of sauce emerging from the rubbish. It dawned on him relatively quickly it was blood,” said Mr McGrath, adding that Mr Forde was deeply shocked to discover Mr Manley’s body and immediately raised the alarm.

He said that the jury would hear evidence of two women, Mary Fitzgerald and Jessica Lowther calling to the apartment at around 8.15am but there was no sign of Mr Manley there at that stage, leading the prosecution to contend that Mr Manley was killed sometime between 6am and 8.15am.

He said the prosecution would produce scientific evidence and CCTV evidence as well as evidence from the various witnesses which he believed would satisfy the jury beyond reasonable doubt that Mr O’Loughlin murdered Mr Manley. The case continues before Ms Justice Tara Burns on Wednesday.