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McCartney murder trial to open Accused 'seen killing McCartney'
(about 10 hours later)
The trial of a man charged with the murder of Robert McCartney is to get under way after it was adjourned last week for legal reasons. A woman driving in Belfast city centre saw Robert McCartney being attacked from 12 feet away and identified the killer, a court has been told.
Mr McCartney, 33, was beaten and stabbed to death outside a bar near Belfast city centre on 30 January 2005. Mr McCartney, 33, was beaten and stabbed to death outside a bar on 30 January 2005.
Terence Davison, 51, of Stanfield Place, Belfast, is accused of the murder and also faces a charge of causing an affray. Terence Davison, 51, of Stanfield Place, Belfast, denies the murder.
He will appear in Belfast Crown Court later on Wednesday. A prosecution lawyer told Belfast Crown Court the woman, "Witness C", saw Mr Davison delivering the fatal stab wound then kicking Mr McCartney in the head.
"The prosecution say that the evidence taken as a whole would entitle the court to draw the proper inference that Davison was seen by Witness C violently attacking and killing Mr McCartney," Gordon Kerr QC said.
He said evidence would show that, after initially taking part in an attack on Mr McCartney along with a number of other men, Mr Davison pursued the injured and bleeding man down another street before stabbing him in the abdomen.
Mr McCartney's friend Brendan Devine suffered a serious neck injury during the incident, which occurred after a fight in the bar - allegedly over an insult made to Mr Davison's partner - spilled outside.
The court was also told that Mr McCartney turned to his friend while he was being assaulted and said: "Nobody deserves this."
Mr Davison is also accused of affray as are James McCormick, 39, and Joseph Gerard Emmanuel Fitzpatrick, 47.
Mr Fitzpatrick is further charged with an assault on another of Mr Cartney's friends.
The trial continues.