A MURDER ACCUSED, who claimed it was “100 percent coincidental” that he fatally stabbed his friend in the neck just hours after threatening to do so, has seen his claim that he was acting in defence of himself and his property rejected by a unanimous jury verdict at the Central Criminal Court.

The jury found 39-year-old Joseph Lawlor guilty this afternoon of the murder of 51-year-old Michael Ryan in a carpark at the back of the defendant’s home at Hampton Wood Road, Finglas, Dublin 11 on 20 June, 2024.

They had spent eight hours and 57 minutes deliberating before returning their unanimous verdict.

Mr Justice Patrick McGrath thanked the jury and exempted them from further service for 10 years.

He will sentence Lawlor to the mandatory term of life imprisonment next Friday, 27 February when members of the deceased’s family will be invited to make a statement to the court. Two sisters of the deceased attended throughout the trial.

It was the second time that Lawlor went on trial accused of the same murder. The first trial collapsed after late disclosure of evidence forced Lawlor’s defence to ask for the jury to be discharged.

During that trial, it also emerged that Lawlor had attempted to “coach” a key prosecution witness during phone calls he made from prison. 

The calls were recorded by the prison service and were played in court, without the jury present.

The witness was at Lawlor’s house when the stabbing happened. In her statement to gardai, she said she was “dozing on the sofa” when Ryan arrived shortly after midnight. She said she didn’t remember much and thought the two men were just “bickering over something small”. 

However, during the call with Lawlor, he told her it was “important to say how aggressive he [Ryan] was” and later said: “Don’t forget to tell them how terrified we were.”  In her evidence before the jury, the same witness described being “terrified” when Ryan entered the house.

However, the trial ended abruptly when gardai discovered fresh evidence after they enhanced the audio recording of the encounter between Lawlor and Ryan minutes before the stabbing.

The enhanced audio revealed that Lawlor told Ryan: “I’ll fight you down the back,” undermining his claim to have been terrified of Ryan.

The defence asked for the jury to be discharged to allow them to assess the new evidence. The prosecution did not oppose the application and Ms Justice Karen O’Connor agreed to discharge.

At Lawlor’s second trial, which began last month, the jury heard that the defendant and deceased were drinking together throughout the day and had their first of three physical altercations at 8.30pm.

The fights were recorded by CCTV and by neighbours using their mobile phones. In his evidence before the jury, Lawlor accepted that he was bigger than Ryan and easily got the better of him. He further accepted that he was strangling Ryan on the ground during one of the fights, causing his face to turn purple.

After the first fight, the two men continued arguing and a neighbour recorded what could be heard through Lawlor’s back garden fence. 

Garda Shane Gallagher told the trial that Lawlor could be heard at one point saying to Ryan: “Get up and I’ll stab you with your own knife straight into your neck.” When he took the stand in his own defence, Lawlor claimed that it was “100 percent a coincidence” that a few hours later, he stabbed Ryan in the neck.

Garda Gallagher said Lawlor later said: “My children are gone already over that f**king snitch” and “he is a f**king rat… he has ratted on everybody.”

Ryan replied: “I saved your life,” to which Lawlor said: “You are a f**king supergrass… you’re a pr**k.”

Ryan then said: “If you are going to stab me, stab me now,” while a female voice shouted: “Stop lads, please.”

Following the second fight, Ryan drove away in his car but was arrested almost immediately for drunk driving. 

Having been processed and released from custody, Ryan returned to Lawlor’s home shortly after midnight and accused him of having called gardai to have him arrested.

He also demanded Lawlor return an expensive watch that he had left behind earlier. When Lawlor refused to return the watch, Ryan threatened to get some “lads” to come and throw “pineapples”, slang for grenades, through Lawlor’s windows.

Some minutes later, Ryan entered Lawlor’s home through the back door and left carrying a bag with almost €4,000 inside. Lawlor claimed the money was the proceeds from the sale of 17,000 Zopiclone sleeping tablets whereas Ryan’s partner, Natanya Cumerford, said the money was part of a loan she had secured for home improvements.

Lawlor chased Ryan to a carpark at the rear of his home and stabbed him once in the neck, severing a branch of the carotid artery and causing his death.

Ryan fell to the ground and called Lawlor a ‘dirtbird’ before shouting: “You stabbed me in the artery, you f**cking eejit.”

Lawlor later claimed that he had not intended to harm Ryan but just wanted him to go away and not come back and throw grenades in his windows. He claimed that he was acting in defence of himself and his home.

Mr Justice McGrath told the jury that to find Lawlor guilty of murder, they must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that when he stabbed Ryan, he intended to kill or to cause serious injury. He also told them that a person is entitled to use reasonable force in defence of themselves or their property.

The jury did not accept that Lawlor acted reasonably or that he had an honest belief that he needed to attack Ryan in the manner he did.