Cobh murder trial witnesses recall seeing victim of sword attack 'bleeding heavily'

An eyewitness at a Cobh murder trial has described how he was sitting in his car in a petrol station car park when a man held a sword in both hands and struck the victim twice on the leg.

Dylan Scannell of O’Rahilly Street, Cobh, County Cork, replied to the charge of murdering of Ian Baitson, in the Eurospar car park on Newtown Road in Cobh, on March 19, 2024, saying: “Not guilty to murder, guilty of manslaughter.” 

His trial before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women is being heard at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.

Today, prosecution senior counsel Donal O’Sullivan said the victim owed the accused money and had been repaying the debt bit-b-bit but that phone messages from the accused were becoming more threatening.

Witness Ron Ellis said he ducked down in his car in shock after witnessing the sword being used: “The man on the ground was shouting and roaring for help, the other man was gone. I got out of the car and approached him. I saw a lot of blood,” he added.

Mr Ellis said he rang the emergency services and ran into the shop to get help for Mr Baitson.

Eric Thomas, who was working in the Eurospar said: “There was a lot of blood. When I saw his leg, it was mostly severed. It was his left leg.”

 He and others at the scene used a belt to make a tourniquet for the heavily-bleeding wound.

Emergency first responder Liam Leahy was shopping at the time but went outside when someone in the shop said there was a man outside who had ''had his leg chopped off.''

''It was a catastrophic bleed, I knew it was grave,'' he said.

Paramedic Gemma Madden said that when she and colleagues arrived in an ambulance they saw a tourniquet to the man’s left leg and they applied two more tourniquets to try to stem the bleeding.

Dr Hugh Doran testified that Mr Baitson was in cardiac arrest and he and paramedics arranged for him to be ventilated with oxygen, given cardiac massage and have advanced life support drugs injected into the bone.

Also giving brief evidence on the opening day of the murder trial was Helen Goggin, mother of the deceased. She said that her son Ian lived at home with her in Newtown, Cobh, and was at home that night with his son, and Richard Baitson, the deceased’s brother.

Ms Goggin said her house is about two minutes from the shopping centre car park. She recalled that at about 8.50pm on March 15, 2024 she thought she heard a message ping on a mobile phone. Ian told her he was going to Spar and he would be back in ten minutes. She began to wonder what was delaying him 20 minutes later when she also heard sirens. She asked her son, Richard, to go up. “I knew something happened,” she said.

Soon afterwards, Helen Goggin and Richard Baitson were travelling to Cork University Hospital where Ian received surgery and went into intensive care, but died four days later. The witness wept as she said: “They had to turn off the machine.” Prosecution senior counsel Donal O’Sullivan gave the jury an outline of the evidence anticipated in the case but stressed to them that this was not ''evidence''.

First, Mr O’Sullivan said that for a person to be guilty of murder they must intend to kill or to cause serious injury so that in this case the prosecution must prove that Dylan Scannell intended to kill Ian Baitson or to cause him serious injury.

“The accused man in front of you pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not murder. He accepts he caused the death but he did not have the requisite mental element of intention.

“The events which give rise to this are that on March 1,5 2024, just over a year ago, at a shopping centre/ petrol station in an area of Cobh called Newtown. It is called Eurospar. It is alleged Dylan Scannell attacked and struck Ian Baitson with a sword causing his death. That is in essence what is alleged.

“The two men knew each other. It appears there was a debt owed by Ian Baitson to Dylan Scannell, being paid off bit-by-bit over a period of time.

“In the immediate aftermath, a mobile phone was recovered at the scene with messages from a WhatsApp conversation between Dylan Scannell and Ian Baitson. You will see the messages. There are voice notes as well. In the run-up to the events of March 15 the messages from Dylan Scannell are coming in a more threatening way.

“There is going to be a CCTV montage … At about 8.50pm Ian Baitson left his mother’s home which is very close. He went to the car park at the back of the complex, where there is one of these washing machine facilities. A car pulled up. A person got out and struck him with a sword. The person who was struck was Ian Baitson. The person who carried out the attack left immediately in the car.

“The Skoda Octavia was tracked by other cameras going to the car park. (Afterwards) it is tracked to various places. It returns to O’Rahilly Street but does not stop there. It goes to Connolly Street right next to the harbour.

“Subsequently, gardaí carried out a search in the Mall, Cobh, a shingle-type beach, and a sword was found (with a DNA match to Ian Baitson).

“The (rental) Skoda Octavia was returned a day or so early. A car mat was seized and blood which was that of the deceased was found.” 

The trial continues before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women and is expected to go on until June 6 at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.