‘I only went for a few cans... and I killed someone’

A MAN accused of murder told gardaí: ‘I only went out for a few cans and ended up killing someone’, his trial has heard.

Robbie Walsh, 23, swung out his arm and stabbed Karl ‘Gobble’ Haugh in the back – and the 25-year-old let out a ‘yelp’ and dropped to his knees, the Central Criminal Court was told.

Mr Walsh’s comments came in dramatic evidence when video footage of excerpts from his interviews with gardaí were played to the jury, and transcripts were read out.

The court previously heard that Walsh and his cousins, Mitchell Walsh and Clinton Walsh, all of Kilrush, Clare, went out on the Saturday night of an August Bank Holiday to smash up Mr Haugh’s car, after claims of a fight between Mr Haugh and Clinton earlier in the day, when Clinton allegedly sought cocaine from Mr Haugh.

Mr Walsh told Det Garda Brendan Rouine he used a metal bar to smash a side windows and windscreen of a car he believed was Mr Haugh’s, according to the transcripts.

He said: ‘We then took off running but when we got to the laneway, Karl and a right few were there.’ He said they had bars and golf clubs.

Mr Haugh ‘got a belt’ across his shoulder and this caused him to drop a knife he was holding, he said. And he, Mr Walsh, immediately picked it up, as Mr Haugh grabbed him and dragged him ‘like a rag doll’, the court heard.

He said he dropped the bar he had been holding but kept the knife. He swung his right arm around and stabbed Mr Haugh in the back, and he let out a ‘yelp’ and fell to his knees.

Mr Haugh got back up again and he thought he was okay. Asked by Det Rouine if there was anything he’d like to change about the night, he said: ‘A man died, there was no need for it.

‘A s **** y bag of coke. I’d no intention of killing anyone or doing anything like that. My only intention was to smash a few windows. I might be a lot of things but I’m not a murderer.’

In a later interview, he said he and his cousins were ‘boxed in’ and ‘had no choice but to stand and fight’. Asked by Det. Rouine how he felt about what happened, he said: ‘S**t because there’s a man’s Mass on today.’

Det. Rouine replied that there’s ‘a man’s Mass on every day’ and Mr Walsh responded: ‘Yeah, but not because of me.’

Robbie Walsh, 23, from Island View, Kilrush, Co. Clare, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Karl ‘Gobble’ Haugh, 25, in the Marian Estate in Kilkee, Co. Clare, on August 6, 2017.

The trial continues before Judge Carmel Stewart and a jury of seven men and four women.

‘He let a yelp and fell to his knees’