A Court of Appeal judge has said that “there may well have been a third party involved” in the murder of a homeless man who was found badly beaten in a Dublin city park, during an appeal launched by a man jailed for life for the murder.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said it was possible that “someone else may have inflicted the blows” that killed father-of-one Artene Bob (49), who was found lying in undergrowth at Sean Walsh Memorial Park in Tallaght on the morning of April 13th, 2018. Mr Bob was taken to Tallaght Hospital by ambulance but died later the same day.
Feri Anghel (44), of no fixed abode, was convicted of Mr Bob’s murder by a Central Criminal Court jury in April last year and received the mandatory life sentence, for what Mr Justice Paul Burns described as the "cynical, vicious and extremely violent" attack on Mr Bob, who the judge described as a "decent and hard-working man".
Anghel had pleaded not guilty to the murder but was unanimously convicted.
The jury heard Mr Bob had won around €2,700 at a casino in Dublin city centre on April 9th, 2018, but that he had already sent the bulk of the money to his family in Romania by the time he was attacked, three days later.
Forensic evidence
Appealing Anghel's conviction at the Court of Appeal on Thursday, Padraig Dwyer SC said the case rested entirely on circumstantial evidence, and the most the evidence could do was place Anghel near the park where Mr Bob was found alive at 7.40am on the morning of his death.
Counsel said there was no forensic evidence connecting Anghel to the scene of the offence, but there was forensic evidence connecting others to the scene.
“Some locals would say they were afraid to go into that park at night. 20 people went through that park, and some were identified but not all,” Mr Dwyer said.
He added that evidence connecting the appellant to the death was a bank card belonging to the deceased used by Anghel on several occasions. He said Anghel could have come into possession of the card innocently or stolen it.
Mr Dwyer said Garofita Selin, who worked with Anghel and saw him with blood on his person, was “the lynchpin of the case”. She gave evidence that Anghel had said to her that he was involved in a fight with a friend of his, and she saw blood on his fingernails.
Mr Dwyer said that this witness had “an animus” to Anghel, because she was told by gardaí prior to making her statement that the man she was working with was a killer.
Mr Dwyer said she made no mention of blood on Anghel's hands until she made her second statement, which was taken in Romania. He said her credibility was undermined as she knew the gardaí had a suspicion of Anghel.
He went on to say that there was one massive variation in her evidence, as during the first trial, which resulted in a hung jury, she had said she saw a red spot of blood on Anghel’s right boot, but in the second trial she said that the blood was on the left.
Mr Dwyer said that Anghel's DNA was not found at the scene, but DNA from other people was on two pairs of glasses belonging to Mr Bob that were found near the scene, as was DNA from cigarette butts. He said that in total, there were four contributors to the DNA samples found.
Mr Dwyer said there was no evidence that Anghel knew Mr Bob had won money in the casino. He said that another witness had given evidence of other people knowing it, and evidence was given of people being aggressive to Mr Bob and “targeting him”. Mr Dwyer went on to say that the court had to consider whether any jury could convict beyond a reasonable doubt in this matter.
He said that the trial judge could have directed the jury that they had to be satisfied that those who left the DNA did not kill Mr Bob. He said that the DNA found on Mr Bob’s glasses was suggestive that people were handling them, but Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said that all this showed was that four other persons had contact with the glasses.
Mr Dwyer said that a pathologist had given evidence during the trial that Mr Bob’s injuries were consistent with more than one person being involved, but they were also consistent with one person stamping and punching. He said that when Mr Bob was found alive and bleeding at 7.40am, he was asked who had done it to him, and he held up four fingers, which gave the person who found him the impression it was four people.
ATM withdrawals
Paul Greene SC, acting on behalf of the State, said that at 2.58am on the morning, one man was seen coming out of the park and was observed at an ATM making seven attempts to withdraw cash. He said this man was identifiably Anghel.
He confirmed to the court that it was proper to infer that the two people seen entering the park before this were Anghel and Mr Bob, and only one left.
Mr Greene said that when Anghel was arrested, he told gardaí that he had not drunk with Mr Bob and that he did not know him. Mr Greene said there was no positive evidence that Anghel did not know about Mr Bob’s win at the casino, nor was there any evidence that he did not know the money had been given to another person for safe keeping.
Mr Justice McCarthy noted that Mr Bob’s glasses were found a relatively short distance away, and he said that the court could properly infer that when assaulted, the glasses must have fallen off or been removed.
“A rational inference would tend to suggest a third party involved. There may well have been a third party involved in the event, which would go to a joint enterprise, so someone else may have inflicted the blows,” Mr Justice McCarthy said.
Mr Justice John Edwards said the court would reserve judgement in the appeal. He also said that the court would view the CCTV footage in the case.
