A man has been appeared in court charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of another man in Kilkee at the weekend.
21-year-old Robbie Walsh of Island View, Kilrush, was charged with assault causing serious harm to Karl Haugh at Marian Estate in Kilkee in the early house of Sunday morning.
Clare Fm’s Fiona McGarry reports from Ennis Courthouse:
At a special sitting of Ennis Distrct Court this morning, Detective Sergeant Padraig Frawley said the state will allege that Robbie Walsh came into the Marian Estate, Kilkee, with two others looking for Karl Haugh at around 1am on Sunday, August 6.
He met Mr. Haugh and another male, and a fight in which weapons were used ensued.
During the altercation, Mr Haugh received a stab wound to the back. He was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick and pronounced dead at around 6am.
Garda arrived at the scene where knives and golf clubs were recovered.
A postmortem indicated that Mr Haugh died due to a stab wound to the left of his spine and that the his left lung was punctured.
Kilrush Garda David King gave evidence of that Mr Walsh was arrested at Kilrush Garda Station on August 7th and charged with causing serious harm to Karl Haugh contrary to Section 4 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997.
He said that when the charge of assault causing serious harm was put to him Mr Walsh replied “nobody was meant to die that night”.
An application for bail was made on behalf of the accused, but this was opposed by Gardaí because of the nature, degree and seriousness of the charge and the likely severity of the sentence upon conviction.
Sgt Frawley told the court of tensions in the area and of a separate incident at Island View when he believe was ‘indirectly related’ to the stabbing.
Judge Marie Keane refused bail on the basis of the serious nature of the case. She also noted the tensions arising from the case.
She directed that the accused be remanded in custody to Limerick Prison to appear again before Ennis Distric Court on August 14.
