Closing stages have been reached in the trial of a Clare man who is accused of murdering another man by stabbing him in the back.
23 year old Robbie Walsh of Island View, Kilrush denies murdering Karl Haugh and told gardai he didn’t mean for it to ‘go down like that.’
Karl Haugh – who went by the nickname Gobble – died after being stabbed once in the back in August 2017 at the Marian estate in Kilkee.
Robbie Walsh was arrested a few hours after he died and admitted stabbing him but said he hadn’t meant for it to go down like that.
He told gardai he believed the deceased and some other men had beaten up his cousin Clinton – so he went down to the estate with Clinton and his other cousin Mitchell to thrash his car.
Robbie Walsh said he stabbed Karl Haugh after he had been swinging him around ‘like a ragdoll.’
He told gardai it should never have happened and he will carry the weight of it on his shoulders for the rest of his life.
In his closing speech the Prosecuting barrister told the jurors he believed there were two verdicts open to them, guilty of murder or not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter – saying it’s not reasonable to say no crime was committed at all.
While the Defence barrister said the accused believed he was in serious trouble that night and it was a primal instinct of self-preservation.
