Delivery cyclist is accused of fatally stabbing schoolboy
Josh Dunne, 16, was involved in incident for five seconds, trial told
A DELIVERY cyclist accused of fatally stabbing a schoolboy stabbed two other people during the incident, his trial has heard.
The incident that led to the death of Josh Dunne, 16, on January 26, 2021 was captured on CCTV and Josh’s involvement lasted five seconds before he was fatally wounded, the court heard.
George Gonzaga Bento, 36, a Brazilian national, with an address in East Wall, Dublin 3, is charged with murdering the 16-year-old at East Wall Road. The delivery cyclist has pleaded not guilty.
Opening the prosecution’s case yesterday, Seán Guerin SC, for the State, told 12 jurors at the Central Criminal Court that events unfolded that night within a ‘surprisingly short space of time’ and that there had been more than one group of participants.
Mr Guerin said the evidence will be that at the time Josh and his friends were making their way towards a pizza shop in East Wall, an incident which had no connection to them began to ‘unfold up East Wall Road’.
The lawyer said another delivery cyclist had left his bike outside a Lidl shop. The bike was locked but not attached to anything and was stolen from outside Lidl by a man on a moped, the trial heard.
Came upon a ‘confrontation’
Having seen the man on the moped ‘making off with’ the bike, Mr Bento and a friend followed him, the court heard. The accused and his friend then confronted the man on the moped when he came to a stop at the junction on East Wall Road, the trial was told.
From this point onwards, Mr Guerin said, all the events were captured on CCTV footage except for about 17 seconds.
He said the footage ‘is not a complete representation’ of the incident as it was some distance away and did not have sound.
When the 17 seconds elapsed and the footage resumed, Mr Bento and his friend had retrieved the bicycle and there was a confrontation or ‘stand-off’ between them and the man on the moped, the trial heard. Mr Guerin said it was the prosecution case that Mr Bento had produced a knife during the ‘stand-off or confrontation’. Very shortly after this, the group of young people including Josh came upon ‘this confrontation’, the trial heard.
Three of the group crossed the road and became involved in the incident, the trial heard. Josh, Mr Guerin said, initially took hold of the moped and was holding it a short distance from the physical confrontation. Two of the group became more physically involved, and at that point some force or violence was used by members of the group on Mr Bento and the man on the moped, the trial heard. During the course of this encounter, Mr Guerin said, the accused stabbed Josh’s teenage friend.
He sustained more than one stab injury, and it is the prosecution’s case that Mr Bento was the only person who had a knife at the time and was using it, the trial heard.
Following this, the man on the moped took the bicycle back from Josh, the trial heard. The deceased then became physically involved in the confrontation, moved towards Mr Bento and appeared to be using force or violence towards him, it was heard. Counsel said the time from when Josh lets go of the moped to the point where he moves away from the group amounted to five seconds.
The only person Josh had any physical interaction with at the scene, Mr Guerin said, was the accused, and it was the State’s case that during these five seconds, Mr Bento stabbed the deceased twice in the chest and caused injuries to his left hand.
Josh, Mr Guerin said, then separated himself from the group and collapsed shortly afterwards.
‘Within 15 seconds of Josh letting go of the moped, he collapsed at the scene and sustained a fatal injury that was unsurvivable,’ he said. Attempts to resuscitate him failed and Josh was declared dead a little over an hour later.
Mr Guerin said the evidence will be that just at time Josh separated himself from the group, two other individuals arrived at the location. This man, who cannot be named, is the third person named on the indictment who suffered injuries, he added. These two individuals, he said, were not with
Josh or his friends and had seen the confrontation taking place and decided to ‘get involved with it’. Their involvement seems to have happened after Josh sustained the fatal injury, he said.
Mr Bento’s friend was beaten by these two men, he continued. During the course of this encounter, Mr Bento stabbed one of these two men, the court heard. ‘Mr Bento separated himself from the group after Josh was injured and the prosecution case is that he returned and stabbed [the man],’ counsel said. Mr Bento also faces three other charges: producing a knife, and assault causing harm to two other young men. He denies all charges. The trial continues before Judge Paul Burns and a jury.
‘Returned and stabbed’