MAN HOSPITALISED AFTER BIKE BAR FALL
ACCIDENT OCCURRED DURING WORK OUTING
A BELFAST man accused of stabbing his nephew told a friend “I’m after killing Geordie” and said he threw the knife down a drain, a court has heard.
George Morrison was stabbed to death in an alleyway in the Antrim Road area of the city in the early hours of July 6, 2009.
A jury at Belfast Crown Court is being asked to determine the facts and reach a verdict on whether or not his uncle Samuel Francis Morrison caused the death of his 29-year-old nephew.
On the second day of the trial, a north Belfast woman who lived in the same apartment block as the dead man’s mother, and who knew the accused for years, was called to give evidence.
The neighbour confirmed that in the hours prior to the fatal stabbing Samuel Morrison had been drinking in her flat with others.
She said that at one stage in the evening Morrison went upstairs to his sister’s flat, then came back to hers before leaving again.
From the witness box, the neighbour said that at around 2.25am she heard shouting through her letterbox
and a voice saying: “It’s Samuel.” She told the jury: “I opened the door and he came into my living room and he had no T-shirt on and he had blood on his chest.
“He said: ‘I’m after killing Geordie’. He said: ‘Our John beat the c*** out of him and I stabbed him five times and slit his throat.’”
The neighbour said Morrison then used two baby wipes to clean blood from his chest, and asked her to wash his white tracksuit bottoms.
When asked about this, the woman said: “He took his bottoms off and he had his boxers on him.
“I didn’t wash them then. I put
them in my washbag. I didn’t wash them because it was too late.”
The woman was then asked what Morrison said about his nephew. She replied: “He said he was lying on the street.”
And when asked if Morrison mentioned a knife, she said: “He said he threw it down the drain.”
She was asked what Morrison’s mood was, and how he seemed at then time.
“Calm,” she replied.
When asked if she saw any emotion, she answered: “A couple of tears on his face just.”
The accused, who is 55 and from Forthriver Park in Belfast, was initially charged with murder.
However, it has since been determined that he has a disability.
He has been deemed unfit and therefore unable to plead to the charge or participate in the proceedings.
The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, is to “determine the facts” and Morrison is watching via a live video-link from HMP Maghaberry.
The jury has already heard the stabbing occurred at the junction of Brookhill Avenue and Allworthy Avenue.
George Morrison sustained several knife wounds in the fatal attack — one of which penetrated his heart — and an attempt was made to cut his throat.
Under questioning from defence barrister Turlough Montague QC, the neighbour was asked whether or not she believed Morrison when he called at her flat and told her what he had done.
When asked what she told police in the direct aftermath of the incident, the woman replied: “I said I didn’t believe him (because) I thought there would have been more blood.
“There was blood on him, there was blood on his chest, but not much on him.”