Paramedics categorised as 'life-threatening' the injuries to a man found on a Louth roadside, after being stabbed 28 times before being locked into the boot of a car that was pushed into a canal.
A paramedic gave the evidence to the Central Criminal Court on Tuesday morning in the trial of a 22-year-old Louth man, charged with attempting to murder a fellow Louth man twice on the one night.
Paul Crosby of Rathmullen Park in Drogheda has pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder, falsely imprisoning and causing serious harm to Gerard Boyle (22) on November 10th, 2016 at Knockcommon, Beauparc, Slane, Co Meath.
He has also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Mr Boyle later on the same date at Boyne Canal, Drogheda.
The paramedic told Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, that he was called to a scene on the Slane Road out of Drogheda around 10.45pm. The court had already heard Mr Boyle had been found lying up against a stop sign, soaked in blood and water.
“The patient was sitting on the ground just with tracksuit bottoms, nothing on top,” he recalled. “He was in a lot of distress, he had an increased respiratory rate. When I shone a torch on him, I saw a number of puncture wounds to his torso.”
The paramedic and his colleagues got him into an ambulance, where they further assessed him.
“I could hear very little air entering one side of his chest,” he said. “The oxygen in his blood was 84 percent, so low. It was obvious he had a collapsed lung.”
He said he began counting the patient’s stab wounds, but stopped at about 20, and just wrote ‘20 +’ in his notes. He put him on high-flow oxygen and began dressing his wounds.
Trauma team
“We decided to load and go as he probably needed chest drains,” he explained. “Life-threatening was our clinical impression and we alerted ED to have a team ready in resus.”
He explained they were just four or five minutes from the hospital. Had they been further away, he would have had to make other arrangements.
He handed the patient over to the trauma team and, as expected, witnessed ‘two chest drains going in’.
The jury later heard from a garda, who had called to the home of the accused earlier that night, but had not seen him there.
Gda Karl Mannion told Mr Gageby he attended Mr Crosby's home at 9.56pm to check if he was there. He confirmed this was 'because there was a nine o'clock curfew'.
He said the door was opened by Brenda Crosby, who invited him into the hall. He stepped inside but didn't see Mr Crosby on the premises.
He recalled that, half an hour later, he received a call about a man trying to wave people down near the Obelisk Bridge outside the town. On arrival, he found Mr Boyle sitting on the roadside.
“He was struggling to breathe,” he explained. “He had a substantial amount of injuries, puncture wounds throughout the body, head, neck and torso. He was wet, shivering.”
The garda wrapped him in a foil blanket and, arising from what Mr Boyle said, went to the Boyne canal and saw a vehicle in the water.
He later spoke to Mr Boyle at the hospital, where he said the injured man named Paul Crosby as the perpetrator.
Mr Bowman SC, defending, asked him if he had searched the property when he attended his client's home that night.
“No, certainly not,” he replied.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of five women and six men.