[ad_1]
A 20-year-old was stabbed to death after calling his teenage killer a “rat” during a drug-related dispute, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
The 17-year-old defendant, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, pleaded guilty last month to the murder of Glen “Ossie” Osborne (20) at Ballybough House, Ballybough, Dublin on April 15 this year.
At a sentencing hearing Monday, the court heard that Osborne’s girlfriend, Lauren Cray, gave birth to their son two months after his murder.
The court also heard that the defendant telephoned Mr. Osborne’s mother prior to the stabbing and said, “Wait and see what I’m going to do.”
In a written statement to the court, Ms. Cray said that she and Glen fell in love, had moved and were planning to have a child. She was excited when she found out she was going to be a father and cried when she first heard the boy’s heartbeat. All he wanted, he said, was to have his son and for them to be together. Glen Osborne’s mother, Rose, said he was a fighter from the day he was born, six and a half weeks early. He was a “grafter” who got up early every morning to go to work and never brought trouble to his door.
She said: “Glen became a charming young man with a cheeky smile. He had the gift of speech and was charming with women. “He was delighted when Lauren got pregnant, he said, adding,” When he was murdered, it was the beginning of my nightmare. I died with Glen that day. ” He would have turned 21 in June of this year, “and that was worse than the funeral of my only son. They have taken away my reason to live. ”
He said that he feels failing every day, but that he does not care because “he would gladly go to God.” She added, “I’m sitting broken and alone waiting for Glen to come in and say hello princess what’s for dinner.” She said she would give anything to get her son back. “My ray of light is gone forever.”
Sergeant Ken Hoare, from Mountjoy Garda Station, told Pauline Whalley SC for the Director of Public Ministry that the defendant had a “somewhat problematic upbringing.”
He said his employer had promised the deceased that he would start an apprenticeship, but when Covid restrictions came in, he was fired and he started using cannabis and cocaine. The Sunday before his death he went to the defendant and they got drugs without paying. The next day, the windows of Mr. Osborne’s home were smashed in what the detective said was retaliation for the failure to make the payment.
Mr. Osborne believed that the defendant had identified his home to these persons, that he had “reported him to a third party”. On the day of the murder there were “angry messages back and forth” and the accused was labeled a “rat”.
An hour before the murder, the defendant’s own father sent him a message calling him a rat. The defendant, who was carrying a white bag with a knife inside, took a taxi to Ballybough where he met the deceased at the entrance to Ballybough House. Shortly before, the defendant had called Rose Osborne and said, “Wait and see what I’m going to do.”
The defendant put down the bag before a fight broke out in which witnesses said Osborne had the upper hand. They were separated and the defendant recovered the bag before a second fight began that was caught by CCTV. Detective Sergeant Hoare said the defendant could be seen swinging his arm and stabbing Mr. Osborne once in the chest. A pathologist’s report showed that he died after suffering a single stab wound that penetrated the heart causing massive blood loss.
The defendant escaped but was on his way to Mountjoy Garda Station with his mother and aunt planning to turn himself in that night when he was stopped by a Garda patrol. In the interview, he initially claimed he was scared and grabbed a piece of glass which he said he used to stab Mr. Osborne, but later admitted to using a knife. Det Sgt Hoare said he was heartbroken and genuinely sorry.
Det Sgt Hoare agreed with defense attorney James Dwyer SC that the defendant had a chaotic record, as he was homeless and his parents had been in prison on several occasions. He said being called a rat would be an “extreme, negative” thing in the defendant’s social context.
Furthermore, he agreed that he had not used the knife at the beginning of the fight and that he did not set out to murder Mr. Osborne when he went to Ballybough House.
In a written letter of apology, the defendant said he was sorry and heartbroken for what he had done. Turning to Rose Osborne, he said, “I say a prayer every night that you can get through this.”
Dwyer told Judge Paul McDermott that because his client is a minor, he does not face a mandatory life sentence. He asked the judge to put rehabilitation front and center of sentencing and to consider the early guilty plea of his client, who was 16 at the time, had significant cognitive deficits and had shown “very real expressions of remorse.” . He said his client has demonstrated an ability to develop, mature and rehabilitate during his time in the Oberstown Detention Center.
Judge McDermott sent the defendant until a new hearing on December 7.
[ad_2]