A DUBLIN MAN who admitted stabbing a 32-year-old-man he found lying in his bed has been found guilty of his murder.
Trevor Corr (39) had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of James Humphries (32) at Kiltalown Way in Tallaght on 22 September, 2013.
This plea was not accepted by the State.
Today a Central Criminal Court jury found Corr guilty by unanimous verdict of murdering Mr Humphries at Kiltalown Way in Tallaght. They had deliberated for two hours and forty minutes.
Defence counsel for Mr Corr, Brendan Grehan SC, told the court he was tasked to indicate on behalf of his client “his profound regret and sorrow that he caused the loss of life” of Mr Humphries and “there is nothing he can say that can change that”.
Mr Grehan asked the court to backdate the sentence of his client. The court heard Mr Corr was currently on bail but had spent “just over four and a half months in custody before being granted bail”.
Mr Justice McCarthy then sentenced Mr Corr to life imprisonment and backdated it to 1 August 2015.
Victim impact statements
Counsel for the State Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC called Garda Sarah Bolger of Tallaght Garda Station to read two victim impact statements to the court.
The first impact statement read by Garda Bolger was written by Mr Humphries’ mother, Ms Ellen Radford.
“On July 17 1981 my son was placed in my arms for the first time, just minutes after he took his first breath. He was so precious, his face so flawless, his skin so soft and I whispered I love you son for the first time,” read Garda Bolger.
The court heard how on 25 September 2013 Ms Radford was led to a “cold table” where her “beautiful son lay” and “this time his face was not flawless” but his skin was “only cold, very cold and I whispered I love you son for the last time”.
In the victim impact statement Ms Radford said she has tried to find the words to describe how James’ murder has impacted on her life but there were “no adequate words” to describe “the pain, anger and despair” that she has felt from his murder.
“James’ murder took everything from me. It took my security and my innocence; it took my rest and my peace. I have lost my faith and trust in people. I have trouble finding joy in the simple pleasures of life,” read Garda Bolger.
The court heard James was Ms Radford’s second son and he “did not deserve to be so cruelly taken away”.
“I do not deserve to have to live the rest of my life with this pain and without my child,” she read.
The court heard James was a “loving, giving young man with a heart as big as the world” and his murder took a “father, son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend” who “was greatly loved”.
Garda Bolger read that James Humphries older brother “struggles with the anger he feels from the lack of justice that put Trevor Corr back on the street on bail when he should have been in jail”.
The court heard James will “never see his son graduate from school, get married or be there at the birth of his grandchildren”.
“What the future would have held for James in unknown,” read Garda Bolger.
The court also heard a victim impact statement from the brother of the deceased Karl Humphries, where he said the death of his brother James had had a “profound effect” on him and the rest of his family.
Evidence
Opening the trial over a week ago Mr Vaughan Buckley SC told the jury of five women and seven men that on 22 September 2013, paramedic Mr Brian Murphy received an emergency call from a man working at a Chinese restaurant.
The court heard the restaurant was across the road from the accused man’s home in west Dublin and the gentleman who worked in the Chinese restaurant went to the assistance of the deceased.
Mr Vaughan Buckley said that the proposed evidence of Mr Murphy was that he spoke to a man on the phone who told him that a man had been stabbed and ”the man who done it was still there”.
“He (Mr Brian Murphy) heard a different man in the background say fuck off and ‘I walked into the bedroom and I stabbed him in the bed’. It is our contention that the person who said that was the accused,” said the barrister.
Counsel said gardaí arrived at the scene at 6.35pm on 22 September 2013 where the accused was asked his name and “he replied Trevor Corr”.
“Mr Corr was asked what happened and he replied saying ‘would you not stab him if he was lying in your bed’,” said counsel.
The court heard when the accused was asked what happened again, he replied saying ‘I stabbed him, he was in my bed’.
The accused was then arrested and brought to Tallaght Garda Station where he was detained by a member in charge.
Death
The death of Mr Humphries was pronounced at 7.08pm that day.
Mr Jason Hart who was working at the Chinese take away in Tallaght on 22 September 2013 was called by the prosecution to give evidence.
The court heard Mr Hart was doing security at the restaurant and he was also “a delivery man”.
Mr Vaughan Buckley asked the witness if he was in the kitchen of the take away at 6.40pm when he heard “someone shouting outside the Chinese” which he agreed with.
Mr Hart agreed with counsel that when he looked across the road, he saw a man slumped up against the front of the house.
The court heard he went “straight across to the garden of the house “and saw “blood seeping out through his t-shirt”.
Mr Hart agreed with counsel that he dialled 999 asking for an ambulance and told the ambulance controller there was a man stabbed and had blood all over him.
The court heard the accused got a blanket and then a duvet from the house.
Mr Hart said he knew Mr Corr from living in the area and at the time he stood in the open doorway of the house.
Post-mortem
Chief State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy was also called to give evidence and she told the court she carried out a post-mortem on the body of Mr Humphries on 23 September 2013.
Professor Cassidy told the court that the deceased had received a single stab wound situated 1.5cm below the collarbone.
“It was a traverse wound, 2cm wide and gaping to 0.8cm,” she said.
The court heard the injury did not penetrate into the deceased’s chest cavity but had punctured the right subclavian artery and vein. The anatomical depth was approximately 5cm.
Prof Cassidy told the court that her conclusion from the post mortem was that Mr Humphries had been “fatally injured in a knife assault” by a single stab wound to the upper chest located below his right collarbone.
The court heard the injury would not have caused immediate death and he would have been capable of moving around for a period of time before he collapsed.
The cause of death was a stab wound to the upper chest with injury to the right subclavian artery and vein.
Robberies
During the trial the court heard Mr Corr’s house in Tallaght had been robbed three times previously and he suffers from Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT) which affects one’s balance and muscles.
Forensic scientist Mr John Hoade from the Forensic Science Lab gave evidence where he told the court that DNA from the tip of a knife found in the accused man’s bedroom matched the deceased, while blood on the handle of the knife matched the accused.
“The DNA profile generated from the tip of the knife matched that of James Humphries and the blood-staining on the handle of the knife matched that of Trevor Corr,” he said.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy thanked the eleven jury members for their time and exempted them from jury service for a period of ten years.
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