DRUG ADDICT SCREAMED FOR MERCY DURING FATAL ATTACK

A drug addict seriously ill with HIV screamed for mercy as he was kicked and
punched to death by a large group of anti-drugs vigilantes, it was alleged
at a manslaughter trial yesterday.

Alan Byrne, a friend of the drug addict Josie Dwyer, told Dublin Circuit
Criminal that after the attack by about 15 vigilantes he was 'in bits' and
looked like something from a horror movie.

He said that while he and the deceased man were kicked, slapped and beaten
with batons and snooker cues by the gang, another group of men stood at the
top of the street stopping people from helping the pair.

Mr Byrne said he himself was screaming like a pig and begging the men to
stop. "There wasn’t an inch of my body that wasn’t kicked or punched," he
told the jury.

After some time, Josie Dwyer stopped screaming and when witness shouted over
to him there was no reply.

Eventually, one of the attackers said someone was coming and they fled. One
of them lifted up Mr Dwyer's body and spat in his face before running down
Basin Lane, a street in Dublin south inner city.

Byrne was helped to his feet by a couple from the Basin Lane area and tried
to help Josie who was breathing very poorly and looked very ill. He also
tried to help Josie to get up, but collapsed. "Josie fell right on top of
me," he said.

They were taken by ambulance to St James's hospital, and Josie was declared
dead shortly afterwards.

"My head was swimming, I was in shock," Mr Byrne told the jury.

He went home but couldn’t sleep and was in great physical pain. "I couldn't
believe it. One minute we were going out to get cigarettes, half an hour
later I'm lying there like that and Josie is dead," he said. Four men, Hugh
Byrne, 33, Dolphin House; Mark Cooke, 25, Dolphin House; John Fitzpatrick,
35, Fatima Mansions; and William Kenny, 55, St Anthony's Road, all Rialto
deny the manslaughter of Josie Dwyer on May 14, 1996.

The four have also pleaded not guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm
on Alan Byrne and of violent disorder on the same date. It was the second
day of the trial.

Mr Byrne said he was staying in Josie Dwyer's flat in Basin Lane at the time
of the attack. They had taken heroin together earlier in the evening, and
had gone out to get some cigarettes from a shop in Dolphin's Barn.

As they reached the centre of Dolphin's Barn, a large group of men crossed
the road and blocked them between a shop wall and a bus shelter. One of
group stepped forward and told the pair to "get out of the fkin' Barn."

Mr Byrne said he was thrown against a shop front and he was kicked and
punched by about 5 or 6 of the men.

Both moved away, but Mr Dwyer couldn't move quickly because of his illness.
They walked back the way came, through Fatima Mansions, and were followed by
the group. Two other cars pulled up and a man known as Ronald Byrne, who was
known to the witness as "the head of the vigilantes in the area" got out.

Ronald Byrne punched witness in the face, and he fell on his back. He then
heard Ronald Byrne shouting 'get him' and a large group of men began
punching and kicking him.

He curled up in a ball, and eventually crawled out from underneath the legs
of the men. He was pulled to his feet by Josie Dwyer and they fled as
quickly as Dwyer could walk.

The vigilantes followed them to Basin's Lane and about fifteen of them ran
ahead and blocked their path. "We were really panicking by now," Mr Byrne
told the jury.

Some of the men were now armed with batons that may have been snooker cues
or pick-axe handles. The trial continues.