Deceased’s sister gives evidence in Arranmore murder trial
A woman has given evidence that a man on trial for murdering her brother on Arranmore Island was his former employer and that her sibling said the accused owed him money.
Stephen Boyle (41) is accused of murdering Paul Boyle (19) at Early’s Bar, Leabgarrow, Arranmore on October 3, 2009.
Mr Boyle of Austen House, Cambridge Road, Kilburn Park in London has pleaded not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court.
Tara Boyle told Mr Vincent Heneghan BL prosecuting that her younger brother Paul had worked for Stephen Boyle, who had his own construction company in London, in 2008 and that he said the accused “owed him money”.
She said her brother had been to a funeral earlier in the day and gone to Letterkenny before returning to Arranmore and going out that night with some friends.
The court that heard she met her brother in one bar before he went to Early’s pub. She said he had not drunk that much and was talking to the accused. Ms Boyle told the court she did not know what the accused was drinking but that it was in a pint glass.
She said she was next door in the bar and she heard someone shouting: “Tony, don’t” but she did not know who it was. Ms Boyle told the court she went into the lounge and everyone was on top of Stephen Boyle.
Paul was lying at the bar on the ground and there was a lot of blood in front of him. “I couldn’t move - I just started screaming”, she said.
Under cross-examination by Mr Micheal O Higgins SC defending, she agreed many of the men on the island had to go away to work.
Mr O Higgins said his client went away to work on the Channel Tunnel before setting up his own construction business. He said out of his clients 20 employees, 10 of these were from the island and Ms Boyle agreed the accused gave her brother a job.
Ms Boyle told Mr O Higgins that in relation to wages she was unaware that her brother was being paid a week in hand and that he was missing shifts.
The trial continues before a jury of six men and six women presided over by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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