Joe Duggan (Reporter)
PHOTOS of Amy Fitzpatrick covered her stepfather David Mahon’s floor the night he allegedly murdered her brother, a court has heard.
Karl O’Toole, a friend of Mahon’s, said he noticed the photos lying in the accused’s flat.
Amy Fitzpatrick went missing in Spain on New Year’s Day 2008.
Mahon denies murdering Dean Fitzpatrick in 2013 in a row over a bicycle.
Mr O’Toole said when Dean came to the home Mahon shared with Dean’s mother Audrey there was a confrontation with Mahon, which later appeared to have been resolved.
But O’Toole said that when Mahon returned he was holding a large knife.
Mr O’Toole said: “In my estimation it was a minute, thirty seconds. Everything went from zero to 100 in that short space of time.
“When he (Mr Mahon) came back in he was holding a knife. I got such a fright myself.
“It was a large knife. It was a long knife.
“I thought the problem had been resolved. He was after getting the part back. Everything just went haywire then.”
Detective Sergeant Eddie Carroll, who interviewed Mahon afterwards, revealed the accused said: “God forgive me but he’s a little bastard, but it’s my fault he’s dead.
“I think I sent him a text saying I was going to stab him.
“Audrey said: ‘He’s your son and you have to sort out the row’.”
The Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, said that Mr Fitzpatrick had bled to death from a single stab wound to his abdomen.
The wound, with a ‘horizontal slice’ was approximately 14.5cm deep.
When asked if the deceased could have ran onto the knife as claimed by Mahon he said: “This is a location in the body, where that could happen,” he said.
“I cannot distinguish between a run-on and a deliberate thrust in this case.”
The trial continues.
