Champion boxer ‘did not wind up murder accused’
Witness tells court victim ‘walked away’ from row at house party
A MURDER trial witness has denied that he and the deceased, Irish champion boxer Kevin Sheehy, goaded and threatened the accused man Logan Jackson.
Thomas Lysaght told the Central Criminal Court that he and Mr Sheehy, 20, were ‘just having a laugh’ and denied that he told the accused and his friend that Mr Sheehy would ‘box the two of you’ or ‘do the two of you in’.
He also denied that he and his friends were ‘spoiling for a fight’ and said he did not take off his belt or act aggressively in any way towards Mr Jackson.
Mr Lysaght was being crossexamined by Michael Bowman SC, defence counsel for 31-yearold accused. Mr Jackson of Longford Road, Coventry, England, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to Mr Sheehy’s manslaughter at Hyde Road in Limerick city on July 1, 2019. Mr Sheehy, a fivetime Irish boxing champion, died after being struck by a vehicle.
Mr Lysaght told Mr Bowman that he was at a house party on Hyde Road in the early hours with Mr Sheehy and a number of people that he only knew to see.
Some time in the early hours, he went outside with Mr Sheehy and saw Mr Jackson with no top on. He said Mr Sheehy pointed at Mr Jackson and said, ‘look at the muscles on him’. He said Mr Jackson was not fat but didn’t have big muscles either and added that he thought Mr Sheehy’s comment was ‘a bit of fun’. He said one of Mr Jackson’s friends responded by ‘flicking a fag’ at Mr Sheehy. He said he and Mr Sheehy started laughing and Mr Jackson told his friend to go inside and get the keys for Mr Jackson’s jeep, which was parked across the street.
Mr Lysaght said he and Mr Sheehy walked on. Mr Bowman put it to the witness that he told Mr Jackson and his friend that Mr Sheehy ‘will do the two of you’. The witness said: ‘That didn’t happen at all. We walked off.’
When Mr Bowman suggested that Mr Jackson was ‘wound up and poked and goaded’ by Mr Lysaght and his friends, the witness replied: ‘We were messing.’
Mr Lysaght denied that there was shouting loud enough to be heard by people inside the house where the party was going on.
Adam Quinlivan told prosecution counsel Dean Kelly SC that he was at the party and remembers Mr Jackson. He said Mr Jackson has an English accent and he noticed that he had an artificial leg. There were no problems at the party, he said, until he heard ‘a lot of shouting’ outside. When he went outside Mr Quinlivan saw Mr Jackson getting into his Mitsubishi jeep. The witness said he ran to Mr Jackson to try to stop him driving off because Mr Jackson was drunk. He said the only thing he remembers after that is being struck by the jeep and later waking up in hospital.
Under cross examination Mr Quinlivan agreed with Mr Bowman that the shouting was loud enough to hear it above music playing inside the house. He disagreed with Mr Bowman’s suggestion that Mr Lysaght and his friends were laughing at Mr Jackson and his friend.
Charlene Williams told Mr Kelly that she was at the party and had just taken a selfie at 4.40am when she heard shouting outside. She went out and saw a jeep ‘fly past’ and when she got to the road she saw Mr Sheehy on the ground in a pool of blood. Ms Williams told Mr Bowman that earlier, inside the house, she overheard Mr Jackson say that people were staring at him. He was angry, she said, and kept pointing at his artificial leg.
The trial continues.
‘He kept pointing at his artificial leg’