Castlebar teen denies stabbing Westport youth

Castlebar teen denies stabbing Westport youth


A TEENAGER accused of stabbing a Westport youth with a kitchen knife has denied he inflicted the ‘life threatening’ wound and claimed his friend carried out the attack.
Shane Naughton (19) of 7 Tara Court, Castlebar denies causing serious harm to Henry Newham who was stabbed at the Railway Walk, Westport on March 16, 2013.
The attack took place at approximately 10.30pm when two groups of youths were involved in a dispute after it was alleged that earlier in the day four Westport teenagers were threatened by Mr Naughton and his friends and told to hand over their phones. Mr Newham had not been in the company of either group but had been at the same party as some of the Westport youths later that night, which he had subsequently left after several others had, and headed in the same direction.
Mr Naughton, along with two other young men, was accused of ‘hunting down’ the rival gang with kitchen knives after the home of one of his friend’s girlfriend was attacked and damaged.
Giving evidence at his trial in Castlebar Circuit Court last week, Mr Naughton admitted he had a knife in his hand but denied he stabbed Mr Newham and claimed his friend, Eamon Barrett, was the person who inflicted the wound.
The court heard the Eamon Barrett from Castlebar was going out with Westport girl, Aoife Killeen, and a gang of up to 20 Westport youths came to her home in the Elms estate in Westport. A rock was thrown through a front window and the family car was also damaged.
Following this it is alleged that the three men, Shane Naughton, Eamon Barrett and Bernie ‘Big B’ Sweeney, all from Castlebar, armed themselves with kitchen knives and went after the group.
It was said that later that night Mr Newham was walking behind the back of the group of people who left the party and became isolated and was attacked and stabbed. Mr Newham underwent emergency surgery in Mayo General Hospital and his spleen was removed as a result of the attack.
In his evidence, Mr Naughton said Mr Newham was struck over the head with a crutch by Bernie Sweeney before Mr Barrett ran towards him with two knives in his hand.
Mr Naughton said he did not see him do anything and they ran away and only realised the person was stabbed when Mr Barrett told him.
“Eamon called me back, I said ‘what’s up’, he looked very pale in the face. I said ‘what’s wrong with you?’ He said, ‘I just stabbed someone’. I laughed, I thought he was joking,” Mr Naughton told the court.
He claimed Mr Barrett gave him the two knives and he brought them to a house in Westport where he was staying. The court heard that the knives were cleaned and hidden behind a stove in the house in St Mary Villas and Mr Naughton was heard saying he stabbed someone.
When asked by his senior counsel, Garnet Orange, why he said this, he explained he did it to protect his friend and did not realise the stabbing was serious.
“When Eamon told me he just stabbed someone, I laughed and thought he was joking. He said, ‘no seriously what will I do, all the Westport lads will kill me when they find out’. I said why are you afraid of them, say if they ask who did it say it was me. If they have a problem, they can come to me.”
When asked by Mr Orange, if he did it, he replied, “I didn’t stab him, Eamon Barrett stabbed him.”

Cross examination
Under cross examination from Mr Pat Reynolds, BL for the prosecution, Mr Naughton said he had been drinking in John Pake Collins’s house in St Mary Villas when he got a call from Eamon Barrett about the gang at the house and himself and Bernie Sweeney went up to it.
He said he had no intention of being violent and took the knife after Mr Barrett  told him the other gang had knives and just wanted to scare them.
Mr Reynolds accused Mr Naughton of ‘tooling up’ and going on a ‘hunting trip’ and his version of events was not believable. When asked by Mr Reynolds if they thought the only way to protect themselves was to ‘hunt people down with knives’, he replied, ‘basically, yeah’.
The trial heard that following the incident, Gardaí went to the home of John Pake Collins at approximately 3am on March 17, 2013 and retrieved the knives and arrested Mr Naughton. His blood stained clothes were seized and the DNA of Mr Newham was found on the Nike logo of his tracksuit trouser.
Aoife Killeen told the court that she was in a Westport pub with Eamon Barrett and Bernie Sweeney when she got a phone call from her parents to come home and went home around 9.45pm. When her parents left, Eamon Barrett went to her house and afterwards a number of youths called to the house calling for Eamon to come out and fight.When she closed the door she heard bottles being thrown and the front window was smashed in. She said Eamon rang Shane and Bernie to come up to the house and they took knives from the house. She did not think anything would happen with the knives, that it was just a scare tactic.
Ms Killeen said she thought Shane Naughton had stabbed Henry Newham ‘based on what I saw after’ when Shane took out a knife and showed it to all of them.
A number of people were in John Pake Collins’s house drinking on the day of the incident and evidence was given that Mr Naughton said he stabbed someone after returning to the house.
Angelina Maxwell said she was in the house all day and that during the night, Mr Naughton, Bernie Sweeney, Marcella Loftus and Rose Griffiths left.
When they returned she said they talked about a boy being stabbed and that Shane Naughton said he stabbed him. She said there was blood on one of the knives.
Another witness, Kirsty Smith, who was also in the house said she saw Mr Naughton produce three knives from the mid section of his clothes. She said when Eamon Barrett returned to the house, she said he only stayed for about ten minutes before going back to Castlebar. She said he was ‘quite jumpy’ and wanted to go home and did not talk much.
The evidence in the trial was heard over three days last week and is expected to conclude today (Tuesday) when the closing arguments will be presented.