Teen witness in murder trial tells of ‘chaos’

A TEENAGER who admits stabbing but denies murdering an 18-year-old during a melee in a Dublin park told the deceased: ‘You don’t remember who stabbed you’, before running away, a witness has told the Central Criminal Court.

The teen witness told James Dwyer SC, for the prosecution, by video link there was ‘chaos’ with ‘everyone just fighting each other’, but that the melee suddenly stopped when someone shouted ‘knife’.

He said he then saw the deceased, Azzam Raguragui, 18, running up a hill with the accused behind him holding a knife in his right hand. He said Mr Raguragui slipped and fell on his back and that the accused stood over him. Mr Raguragui tried to push the accused away with his legs, the witness said, adding: ‘He [the accused] hit him to the leg once and then he came down with a swinging motion towards his chest area with the knife.’

He said he had a vivid memory of the incident and dreams about it every night. He said that following the fight, he remembered one of the teenagers saying to the accused: ‘What the f*** are you doing?’ before the accused, with the knife still in his hand, said to Mr Raguragui: ‘You don’t remember who stabbed you.’ The witness said he thinks the accused then ran away

The 17-year-old accused, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, has admitted manslaughter but denied the murder of Mr Raguragui on May 10, 2019 at Finsbury Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14.

Under cross-examination, the witness told Michael Bowman SC the fight broke out after someone, not the accused, punched Mr Raguragui during a conversation about a stolen bicycle. A second teenage witness told Mr Dwyer that earlier that day, Mr Raguragui approached two members of the other group looking for a bike that had allegedly been stolen.

There was no aggression during that conversation, he said, and when the other group said they didn’t have the bike, they went their separate ways. The witness was with Mr Raguragui and others in Finsbury Park that evening at about 7.50pm when he saw members of the other group approaching, the court heard. He said he presumed they were coming to return the bicycle ‘to resolve the situation’.

The witness said the accused asked who was looking for the bike and Mr Raguragui responded. Words were exchanged, the witness said, and he felt the accused was not aggressive but was confrontational.

The witness said at this point he didn’t believe there would be any problem between the two groups and that he was leaving the park on his bicycle when the fight broke out. He said he ran towards it and was involved in the fight when he heard someone shout ‘knife’ and everyone suddenly stopped. He said he left at that point, not knowing that his friend had been stabbed. The trial continues.