A TEENAGER WHO was stabbed to death during a melee in a Dublin park suffered four stab wounds including one that severed a major artery, a pathologist has told the Central Criminal Court.

Acting State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan told the trial that one wound to the chest of 18-year-old Azzam Raguragui caused his death.

The severed artery would have led to collapse and death a short time later, she said. She found no defensive wounds on his hands or arms.

The 17-year-old accused, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to the murder of Raguragui at Finsbury Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14 on 10 May 2019. His plea was rejected by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Dr Mulligan today told the trial that Raguragui’s organs, heart and brain were all normal and healthy. She saw no sign of injury to his head or neck but noted stab wounds to the chest, upper back, right arm and right thigh.

The wound to the chest, about 4cm above the right nipple, went to a depth of about 9cm and severed the subclavian artery below the shoulder blade.

Such an injury, the pathologist said, would have led to massive blood loss, collapse and death shortly afterwards. The other injuries, she said, were minor but caused blood loss and would have contributed to his death.

The witness said gardaí showed her a knife that they believed was used in the incident and she agreed that the knife could have caused those injuries.

Under cross examination Dr Mulligan told Michael Bowman SC for the defence that once a knife has penetrated the skin, if it doesn’t meet bone, it will keep travelling through the body. She further agreed that the tip of the knife that she examined is “very pointed”.

She said it is not possible to say what position the deceased was in when he suffered his injuries but she agreed that it is possible that he was standing upright. The witness further agreed that there was no evidence of blunt force trauma to the forehead or bridge of the nose.

She also noted bruising to Raguragui’s finger which she said is consistent with an “offensive” injury. She said that it would be normal in altercations involving a knife to see defensive injuries to the hands or arms but in this case there were none.

She said Raguragui would have been “somewhat capable” of movement for a short time after the fatal stab wound was inflicted but agreed with Bowman that he “would not have gotten very far”.

Witnesses

Earlier the trial heard from Jacinta Milton, Patrick Lynch and their daughter Irena Lynch who were walking in Finsbury Park on 10 May last year when they witnessed a “nasty” and “vicious” fight between teenagers.

Jacinta Milton told Dwyer that she noticed a group of 16 to 18 year-olds “messing” and “shoving one another” which got worse as it went on.

She noticed one of the youths running up a little slope with a smaller boy running behind him. The taller boy, she said, ended up on the ground and the smaller boy “got on top of him and they were really nasty kind of fighting”.

The witness said she walked on and as she looked back she saw the smaller boy take a knife out of his pocket. Irena Lynch told Dwyer she and her parents were just a few metres away when the boys “rushed into the park”.

They were loud and boisterous, she said, and began to split into different groups. She saw one youth run up to a grass area where he stumbled and fell.

She saw a few other boys standing over them and one of them was “in a threatening position standing over him” while the person on the ground was in the foetal position.

Patrick Lynch told Dwyer that he and his wife and daughter were walking when they heard a noise and saw a, “crowd of young lads chasing across the green”.

Fighting broke out, he said, and “one young lad fell to the ground and a couple of lads were violently kicking this young lad”.

He told his wife and daughter that they should leave and as they walked on, he said he saw one of the boys running and falling while another youngster stood in a “threatening anticipating” way. He had something in his right hand but the witness couldn’t say what it was.

Michael Ryan said he starting filming on his phone when he saw someone in the park hand a knife to someone on a bike. The 52-second clip was played to the jury.

The trial continues tomorrow in front of Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six men and six women.

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