PAUL DEERING REPORTS FROM THE CCJ ON DAY FOUR OF THE TRIAL OF KEITH BRADY FOR MURDER
MURDER accused Keith Brady (30) admitted stabbing Martin Kivlehan in his apartment on Holborn Street after ‘ things got messy.’
“That man is dead. He shouldn’t be dead. I didn’t want him to be dead. Things just got out of control that’s all. I wish I could change what happened but I know I can’t.
“Things just got out of control. I have a slight recollection of what happened. Only me and Janice were there when he died,” Keith Brady told Gardaí on the second day of questioning at Sligo Garda Station following his arrest for murder. On the first day of questioning he initially denied anything to do with the killing.
He went on to say: “I just want to say to the relatives of the man deceased that I am sorry. I’m very deeply sorry. It’s not what I do. It’s just the drink and drugs. If I could give my life for his I would. I’m deeply sorry.”
Mr Kivlehan was found dead at his apartment on the afternoon of the August 3rd, the Bank Holiday 2015. Keith Brady was arrested for murder by Sgt Pat Harney that Monday night and over the next two days he was interviewed by Detective Garda David Hannigan and Garda Martin McHale. The details of the interviews were read to the jury of seven women and five men.
On the second day of questioning, Wednesday the 5 th, Brady recalled how he had been sitting on the couch in Mr Kivlehan’s apartment having arrived there with his sister, Janice with cans of cider bought in an off-licence on the previous Sunday evening. There was just the three of them there. Brady went on to say how he was sitting on the couch in the apartment with Mr Kivlehan close by on a chair and Janice sitting beside him.
“Things were grand. We were listening to music. Then things got messy. He got messy. Something happened with Janice. I don’t know, I think he touched her up. I’m not sure. There was blood. He was stabbed. My recollection is poor.” He was asked how was Mr Kivlehan stabbed? “I stabbed him. I stabbed him and then Janice, she put the knife to his throat,” he replied.
He said he wasn’t sure where he had stabbed Mr Kivlehan. Brady pointed to his left chest area above his heart. He said he could have stabbed him more than once but that he wasn’t sure.
He said he wasn’t sure if Janice stabbed him. He recalled her putting the knife up to the left hand side of his neck. Brady went on: “I just jumped up. I jumped up fast. It was just a sporadic incident. It just happened. It’s after ruining families. It’s after ruining his family, my family.”
The knife, he said was just on the couch. He could not describe it. He said he definitely thought he stabbed him in the heart. Brady was asked how soon after he stabbed Mr Kivlehan did Janice put the knife to his throat.
“Seconds, a minute, it could all have been over in a minute,” he said. They then left.
Asked did Mr Kivlehan move, say or do anything after being stabbed, Brady replied: “I’m not sure. I think he stayed on the chair.”
Brady was also asked if he had taken drugs and he confirmed he had taken Xanax and Heroin.
“That’s why I’m edgy now. I’m coming down off it,” he told Gardaí. He went on to say that he had been “off his head for weeks.” Brady was asked was he covering for his sister and he replied, ‘definitely not.’ In his fifth and final interview in the afternoon of Wednesday, August, 5 th, Brady was asked about coins and said he knew nothing about them.
“No, I don’t know where the coins came from. I had no intention of killing this man. It was spur of moment thing. I had no intention to kill this man. I am deeply sorry.” He was asked again about his saying he had stabbed Mr Kivlehan in the chest area.
“I don’t know where I stabbed him. I’ve tried to remember.”
“Are you adamant you stabbed him?” “I wasn’t in my right frame of mind” - Brady But you are happy you are being truthful? “Very truthful”- Brady.
“If I was to tell you the injuries to Mattie Kivlehan were to his neck what would you say?” “I never stabbed anybody in the neck” - Brady. “So go back to your previous interview - you said Janice got the knife to Mattie’s throat. Did she stab him the neck?”
“I don’t know, ask Janice. I didn’t see her stab him. She had the knife to his throat. “Who stabbed Mattie?”
“I don’t know. The last interview I was seeing things, trying to remember. I was on Xanax and Heroin” - Brady.
“Keith, the family will want the truth?” “We were in the sitting room. Things are blurred. I was outta me head. Things got messy” - Brady.
“So, you are sitting on the couch, Mattie is sitting?”
“I’ve told ye already, you’re trying to twist things” - Brady.
“I just want to make sure that when we walk out of here you have told us the truth?
“Ya, the truth. The whole truth” - Brady. “Is there anything else you wish to clarify from the last interview?
“I just don’t know if I really stabbed him” - Brady.
“Did Janice stab Mattie?”
“I don’t know, ask Janice” - Brady. “How did he die?”
“You said he got stabbed in the neck” - Brady.
“You seem to be pulling back from the last interview?”
“Yes, me mind was clouded” - Brady. “And yes Janice is your sister and you love her and you are protective of her and are these factors clouding your judgement?”
Brady made no reply to this question. “Are you protecting Janice?”
“I’m not protecting Janice”- Brady. It was put to Brady that he seemed to be holding back.
“What’s it you are dancing around? What’s causing your anxiety?”
“I’m coming off heroin” - Brady.
“There’s something you’re holding back?” “It’s a truthful account. I had no intention to kill anyone” - Brady.
“How did Mattie die?”
“I don’t know” - Brady.
“Why did Mattie die?”
“I don’t know” - Brady.
Sgt Harney earlier told the court that Brady was shouting and agitated when he arrested him for murder and brought him for questioning on Monday night. At 10.38pm at a conference meeting in the Superintendent’s office he was satisfied there was sufficient grounds to arrest the Bradys for murder. He was shouting to Janice, who was also in custody, “Don’t say anything Janice, they’re trying to stitch us up.” Keith Brady was already in custody since 9.52pm that night having been arrested for a drugs search by Det Garda Conor Jordan at Ballast Quay. No drugs were found on him. Brady was pacing around the room and mainly calling to his sister not to say anything, said Sgt Harney who put away his notebook as Brady was so aggressive.
“He’d sit for a moment and then jump up again,” he said. Brady was dishevelled, sweaty and very aggressive in the interview room. He banged the table. Interviews began on Tuesday, August 4 th at 12.45pm with Det Garda Hannigan with Det Garda Paul Casey also present. Brady refused to give mouth swab samples saying he was just trying to protect himself from being falsely accused.
He said if he had been in Mr Kivlehan’s home it didn’t mean he murdered him.“It had nothing to do with me. May he Rest in Peace,” he said, adding that he never touched him, never murdered him.
“All I want to say is that I had nothing to do with this. I’ve never murdered a man in my life,” he said.
He wasn’t involved and he shouldn’t “be here.” He knew Mr Kivlehan as “a lovely man.”
He told the Gardaí that he wanted the person responsible caught.
“I’m very sorry that a man is dead and I hope ye catch the man who did it,” he said.
Asked why he thought he was in the Garda Station, he replied: “Maybe because I’ve a bit of a history.”
He was asked to account for his movements on the Sunday and Brady told Gardaí he “couldn’t remember fifteen minutes ago.”
He later told Gardaí that he felt he “shouldn’t be here” and that it was false imprisonment.
He again stated he didn’t kill anyone. He didn’t know what happened Mr Kivlehan or how he died. He had been in his flat a few times. His parents knew he was in custody. “My mother knows I didn’t do it,” he said. A blood stained tissue at Sligo Railway Station had nothing to do with him or Janice. He didn’t dump any coins there. “Obviously someone killed him but it wasn’t me or Janice,” he said.
“There’s a man dead Keith?”
“It’s not my problem” - Brady.