A DUNMANWAY man who claims that his younger brother stabbed him in the left arm and then put a knife in the chest of their other brother  said that his alleged attacker was ‘full of venom’  and ‘gritting his teeth’ in anger.

BY OLIVIA KELLEHER

William Brennan (32) of Longbridge, Ballyhalwick, Dunmanway, denies causing serious harm to his older brothers John and Jerry Brennan Jnr at a property in Ballyhalwick on August 17th, 2024. He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of producing a knife on the same occasion.

Jerry Brennan Jnr told the trial in Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday that he has had limited use of his left hand following the alleged stabbing incident.

He said that Jerry Brennan Snr previously signed over the property at Ballyhalwick to the three brothers but the yard is the only common place of ownership between them.

A judge in the district court had ruled that William should not be in the shared yard at the same time as his two brothers.

Jerry Brennan Jr said that he and his brother John were cutting branches and tidying on that date when William arrived at the property.

He claimed that William took out a grinder in order to open the padlock at the gate and that William was shouting out the names of girls ‘at the top of his voice.’

‘I opened the gate and he came in. He was full of venom. He was gritting his teeth. He was angry. He was vicious,’ said Jerry Jr.

He said William was ‘going on about stuff’ that he had received from their father such as a lion cage and trailers.

‘He then drew the knife on me. He went for me with the knife. The knife was inside his pocket and ready to go. It felt like it (the stabbing) went on forever. I was doing my level best to keep him back but he got me anyway.’

He added that his father Jerry Snr came in after William and said something like ‘Do what you came to do.’ He compared the demeanour of his father to ‘a fella cheering on a team.’

Jerry Jnr said that he realised that his left arm was ‘spurting out blood.’

‘I couldn’t stop it. It was pumping out blood (for a distance of) four to five feet. I was saturated in my own blood. There was no stopping it.’

He said that his middle brother John ‘heard the commotion’ and came out. He stated that John picked up a stick of timber to hit William but ‘it just broke off his head.’

‘He (William) went for Johnny. He stabbed him in the chest with the knife. I wasn’t able to do anything. I didn’t know what was going on. I could just see blood pouring out of my left arm. It is like my feet were stuck to the ground.’

Jerry Jnr said that John grabbed him and they both ran out of the yard. He added that John put a belt around his left arm and ‘squeezed the daylights out of it’ which ‘stopped it (the blood) for a while.’

Jerry Jnr said that John asked their father to call an ambulance but that he refused to do so. He stated that he spent nine days in hospital following the incident and underwent a number of surgeries.

Under cross examination by defence barrister Jane Hyland, SC, Jerry Jnr denied burning out an excavator owned by William Brennan at a property in Leap earlier that day.

He also refuted suggestions that William was used as a ‘punchbag’ by his two older siblings and that he pushed the accused off a shed when his younger brother was just sixteen years old.

Jerry Jnr also denied attacking William with a stone and a pipe wrench in 2020.

He said he had acted in self-defence on that occasion and was found not guilty in court.

He also said that he had never attacked his father or been in any way aggressive towards his parents.

He also denied attending anger management classes after these claims were put to him by the defence. Jerry Jnr also said that William’s claim that he was attacked by his two brothers on the day of the alleged stabbing was a ‘lie.’

The jury of eight men and four women heard that the relationship has been strained between the brothers and William for some time.

The trial continues.