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A woman described in a murder trial the moment she saw the defendant “massacre” and “excessively kill” her boyfriend after a dispute over the lack of crack cocaine.
The witness told the jury that Darren Houlden was on top of his partner and had his knees behind his back when he stabbed the victim.
Rachel Kearney said her boyfriend Stephen ‘Apples’ Kavanagh pleaded with her as the defendant stabbed him and asked, “Will you help me? Is going to kill me “.
Ms. Kearney testified about Wednesady at the trial of Mr. Houlden (44), who is accused of murdering Mr. Kavanagh, 37, in the early hours of Monday, May 6, 2019.
Mr. Houlden of The Crescent, Meadowvale, Arklow, Co Wicklow pleaded not guilty to murder, but was guilty of the manslaughter of Mr. Kavanagh at the same location. His statement was not accepted by the Director of the Public Ministry (DPP) and he is being tried in the Central Criminal Court.
In presenting evidence Wednesday, Ms. Kearney told prosecutor John Fitzgerald SC that she had known Mr. Kavanagh since she was 13 years old and had been in a relationship with him for a few weeks.
Ms. Kearney testified that the defendant and her boyfriend stopped by her side in a car in Arklow on the afternoon of May 4. “Stephen asked if I wanted to go have a cup of tea and a joint at Darren’s house, I told him I could too,” said the witness.
Ms. Kearney said that she went with the two men to Jack White’s Inn shortly after, where Mr. Houlden parked his car next to another vehicle. She told the jury that there was a man sitting in the other car and they only stayed for five minutes before returning to the home of Mr. Houlden’s parents, who the court heard were in Spain at the time.
Crack cocaine
Ms Kearney said the three spent the night smoking crack from a pipe in the defendant’s room before going to bed around 5:30 a.m.
The next day, the witness said that Mr. Houlden took her to fetch weed and a bag of heroin. “Heroin wasn’t for me, it was for Darren,” he added.
Ms. Kearney said that the defendant smoked heroin in his home that same day and that she and Kavanagh had smoked a joint. She told Mr. Fitzgerald that once Mr. Houlden was “doing a lot of drugs and smoking whatever it was, everything was fine.”
The witness said that she and her boyfriend were preparing to leave the defendant’s home that night when Mr. Kavanagh noticed his crack cocaine was missing and became upset. “He had hidden it in Darren’s room, behind the door. When he realized he was gone, there were back and forth discussions. Stephen would say where my drugs are and Darren would say he didn’t take them, but he had them, ”he continued.
Ms. Kearney said the defendant got aggressive and started punching holes in the walls. He said that Mr. Kavanagh was angry that the defendant had “stolen” him and said he was going to make a phone call to a friend. “I don’t know if he made that call because I was in the other room looking for the drugs,” he added.
When Kavanagh realized that the defendant would not return his medications, Ms. Kearney said the three of them got into Houlden’s car. However, Mr. Houlden got out of the car again quite quickly and went home. Mr. Kavanagh followed the defendant and Ms. Kearney stayed in the back of the car.
A few minutes later, Ms. Kearney said she yelled at the front door of the house but got no response. “I ran to the top of the stairs and Darren was stabbing Stephen, he had his knees behind his back, he massacred him, he killed him excessively,” he said. The witness told Mr. Fitzgerald that her boyfriend was face down on the ground and that the defendant had both knees on his back when he stabbed him.
Ms. Kearney said her boyfriend said to her, “Will you help me? He is going to kill me” before grabbing Mr. Houlden by the arm. “I was not strong enough to stop him. I said please stop you’re killing him and he [Mr Houlden] He calmly responded by saying ‘Ok, I will,’ ”he said. The last two stabs were in the neck and head of Mr. Kavanagh, he continued.
The witness said that she thought they would kill her next, so she took a mobile phone and called 999. “I was scared, I said that if he caught me, I was gone,” she said.
Mr. Fitzgerald asked Ms. Kearney how much the missing medications were worth. “Worth € 2,000, a life that exceeds € 2,000,” he replied.
‘Psychopath’
During cross-examination, defense attorney Brendan Grehan SC told Ms. Kearney that he appeared on behalf of Mr. Houlden. “I pity you,” Mrs. Kearney said.
Mr. Grehan told the witness that much of what had happened that day was not at stake and that his client had killed Mr. Kavanagh. “Oh yeah, he stabbed him 37 times, over-killed him, not only murdered him, he massacred him,” Ms. Kearney said.
Mr. Grehan told the victim’s girlfriend that his client was “crazy” at the time, almost “like a psychopath.” Ms. Kearney disagreed with this.
The attorney also suggested to the witness that they had gone to Jack White’s Inn to buy crack and that she knew very well that her boyfriend was buying the drugs. The witness said that this was not the case.
Mr. Grehan further told Ms. Kearney that her boyfriend had made a phone call when his drugs disappeared, that it was “to send bodies” to the defendant’s home and that Mr. Houlden would be taken to the mountains and shot. “No, Stephen was not a violent person,” he said.
Later, Ms. Kearney agreed with the attorney that she had overheard her boyfriend say he was going to make a phone call, but did not see or hear him make any phone calls.
The witness told the lawyer that her boyfriend had not accused her of taking the crack from him, as she said she would not need to take anything from him.
The witness agreed that Mr. Kavanagh had first noticed the drugs were missing around 8:30 pm that night. “After 45 minutes he said he was no longer looking for it because he knew where he had put it,” he said.
Mr. Grehan asked the witness if his client was out of control at the time. “I wouldn’t say he was out of control, they caught him and he didn’t know what to do,” he said.
Ms. Kearney disagreed with attorney that there was a long preparation for this evening event. Mr. Grehan suggested to the witness that at a time when Mr. Houlden thought people were coming to his house, he had put an ax in the front door and then pulled out a knife from the kitchen, which he had shown the witness. “I didn’t see any knives until I got to the top of the stairs,” he replied.
Mr. Grehan suggested to the witness that his client had attacked her boyfriend to prevent him from making a phone call “so that people would come to the house to shoot Darren.” “No, that’s all a lie,” he said.
Laceration
Garda Dean Bolger from Arklow Garda Station said he received a call from the control unit around 12:30 am on May 6 informing him that there had been a stabbing in Meadowvale. The witness said he found a man with a weak pulse, lying on his right side in one of the bedrooms of the house. Gda Bolger said she recognized it as Stephen Kavanagh when she rolled the man onto his back. Gda Bolger observed a large laceration on the back of the victim’s head, as well as a large number of cuts to the neck and forearms.
Paramedic Laura Hogan testified that Mr. Kavanagh arrived at St Vincent Hospital at 2 am. He died at 2.35 a.m. on May 6, 2019, the court heard.
In his opening speech, Mr. Fitzgerald said that Mr. Houlden entered a garda station wearing blood-stained clothing and holding a knife before admitting to the fatal stabbing. He said the jury would hear the defendant say he “became enraged” and stabbed Mr. Kavanagh to death after the victim allegedly threatened to make a phone call about missing drugs.
The trial continues Thursday before Judge Carmel Stewart and a jury of eight men and four women. It is expected to last two weeks.
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