A 25-YEAR-OLD MAN was fatally stabbed in the neck in Tallaght in August 2021 after a row over a small debt and a stolen scooter, a prosecution barrister has told a murder trial.
28-year-old John Titiloye, with an address at Mac Uilliam Crescent, Fortunestown, Tallaght, Dublin 24 has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ademola Giwa in the Mac Uilliam Road area in Tallaght on 10 August 2021.
The victim was from Mac Uilliam Parade in the same area of west Dublin.
The 12 jurors were also told by the State today that it is the accused’s position that he was in possession of a knife for self-defence and having initially walked away from the altercation he returned to protect his father, who sustained a stab type injury to the eye.
In his opening address to the Central Criminal Court jury this afternoon, prosecuting counsel John Byrne said the deceased was nicknamed “Dizzy”. He said the accused man was 26-years-old at the time.
Byrne said that Titiloye and the victim had been friends at one stage, having gone to school together and grown up on the same street.
Byrne said that a man by the name of Samson Fayemi owed a small bit of money to the accused and it had become “a source of tension” between the two men.
The court heard that Fayemi’s scooter was forcibly taken by a number of men including the accused “to settle the debt” on 9 August 2021, the day before the murder, at Marlfield Estate in Tallaght.
Byrne said the keys for Fayemi’s scooter were also taken by the men, which his house keys were attached to.
Counsel said that Fayemi will give evidence in the trial that following the taking of his scooter by the men he called to his friend Mr Giwa to tell him what had happened.
In relation to the evidence against the accused, Byrne said that a knife was purchased by Titiloye in an angling and shooting shop in Lucan the next day.
Detailing the evidence that will be heard, Byrne said Fayemi and the victim called to Titiloye’s home at Mac Uilliam Crescent at 6.45pm on 10 August.
“The purpose of the visit was to confront Mr Titiloye about the taking of Samson’s scooter the previous day,” he added.
The accused was present in his house when the two men arrived and left the home where the three men walked to Mac Uilliam Road and began arguing with each other, according to the prosecution.
The prosecuting barrister told the court that the verbal row quickly developed into a physical altercation and that Titiloye’s father, Anthony, also involved himself in the altercation.
The barrister said it is the State’s case that in the course of the argument the accused produced a knife and stabbed the victim in the neck, which was the primary injury. The jury heard that the deceased also received a minor injury to his arm.
Byrne said the evidence will be that the accused’s father Anthony sustained “a cut type or stab type injury to the left eye” and subsequently required treatment in hospital.
Outlining the facts of the case, Byrne said that the accused left the scene after the altercation, which were witnessed by a number of individuals in the vicinity some of whom had recorded it on their mobile phones.
He said there was CCTV and mobile phone footage of the incident.
Counsel told the jury that medical assistance was provided to the victim and further attempts were made to resuscitate him after he was transferred to Tallaght Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8.20pm that evening.
Counsel said the court will hear that Dr SallyAnne Collis gave the victim’s cause of death as a stab wound to the neck with no other contributory factors.
Titiloye was arrested the following day, on suspicion of the murder of Giwa at Mac Uilliam Road and detained at Tallaght Garda Station.
The lawyer said that the prosecution’s case against Titiloye is that he made certain admissions linking himself to events.
“His position was that he was in possession of a knife for self-defence and having initially walked away he returned to protect his father,” said Byrne.
Counsel said the knife used by the accused was not retrieved and no weapons of any description were found. However, an identical knife to the one which Titiloye had purchased from the shop in Lucan was obtained by Gardaí.
The barrister further stated that there is forensic evidence in the case such as Titiloye’s clothing, which the prosecution say links the accused to events at Mac Uilliam Road.
The trial continues this afternoon before Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six men and six women. It is expected to last two weeks.
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