A murder trial jury has listened to a 999 recording of a teenage boy saying "I'm actually so in fear of my life right now" as he told a dispatcher he stabbed a fisherman "by accident" after the man had come "in the front door at him" and tried to hit him in the early hours of the morning.
"I did it, but I didn't mean to though," Dean Kerrie, who is now 20-years-old, told the emergency services.
Mr Kerrie with an address at St Brigid's Square, Portarlington in Co Laois has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jack Power (25) at Shanakiel, Dunmore East, Co Waterford on July 26th, 2018.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Sergeant Michele Burns told prosecution counsel Conor O'Doherty BL that she received a disc containing seven individual 999 calls made in the early hours of July 27th in relation to the incident at Dunmore East.
The witness said the fourth call was made by Mr Kerrie's mother, Ann Fitzgerald, to emergency services at 3.37am in which she requested gardaí. The fifth call was made by the accused at 3.44am.
The prosecution played the 999 call made by Ms Fitzgerald to the jury. In the audio recording, the jury heard Ms Fitzgerald tell the dispatcher that the windows had been broken in her house. When the dispatcher asked "is that all that is after happening at Shanakiel; your windows have been broken?" Ms Fitzgerald replied: "Yes".
The second 999 call made by Mr Kerrie was also played for the 12 jurors.
In the call, Mr Kerrie told the dispatcher: "Someone is after coming into my house and I'm after stabbing him by accident," adding: "I did it, but didn't mean to though."
The accused said he stabbed Mr Power with a kitchen knife, but when asked by the dispatcher if he was going to run away, Mr Kerrie said no, "because it wasn't my fault".
"I'm in fear of my life with these people coming back to my door. I don't know what to do," he said.
Mr Kerrie told the dispatcher he has no previous dealings with Mr Power and had not taken any alcohol or drugs prior to the incident.
"My life is going to be gone over him coming in here," Mr Kerry said.
Blood smears
Earlier, Detective Garda Janette O'Neill, who went to the accused's home at Shanakiel after the incident, said a wooden leg belonging to a broken chair located in the hallway of the house was found in the attic.
Four areas on the leg of the chair had "blood smears" on it. A rock was also located on the couch of the sitting room.
The detective agreed with defence counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin SC that the first thing she noticed were broken windows at the front of the property. Gda O'Neill said most of the glass was inside the house.
The witness also agreed with the barrister that the chair in the hallway appeared to be very recently damaged and said she thought the front door of the house had been forced open at some stage.
Det Gda O'Neill said, in her opinion, a violent altercation had taken place at the house and agreed the deceased had suffered a fatal stabbing. Mr O'Loughlin said this was precisely what Mr Kerrie had told gardaí on the phone two days earlier, to which Det Gda O'Neill "I don't know that".
Under re-examination, Det Gda O'Neill told Mr O'Doherty BL, prosecuting, that she could not date when the forced damage on the back of the front door had occurred.
Garda Conor Murphy said Mr Power's death was pronounced at 4.54am that morning.
The witness identified to the jury a t-shirt worn by Mr Power that night, which was given to him by the Emergency Department in University Hospital Waterford. He showed the blood-stained centrepiece of the t-shirt to the jurors and pointed to a hole in the middle of it.
Detective Sergeant Melissa Lyons, from the fingerprint section of An Garda Síochána, said a palm mark was located on a black knife at the sink, which had a blood-like substance on it, however, she said there were "not enough ridge characteristics for me to compare it".
The court also heard two finger-marks belonging to Mr Kerrie were found on the front door of the house.
Opening the prosecution’s case last week, Mr Delaney said the jury may have to consider the issue of self-defence in the trial.
Counsel also said the jury would hear a black and white handled knife, which had been lying on the floor, was seized and swabbed for blood but "curiously no blood was found on the blade".
The court heard gardaí found a similar knife partially concealed on the draining board in the kitchen of the house, which did appear to have blood on it and was found to contain Mr Power's DNA.
The trial continues on Thursday before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of eight men and four women.
