{"id":173348,"date":"2025-11-10T15:58:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/173348\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:58:13","slug":"man-accused-of-murdering-irishman-in-london-told-police-he-saw-another-man-at-the-scene-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/173348\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of murdering Irishman in London told police he saw another man at the scene \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man accused of the London<\/a> murder of 87-year-old John Mackey told police he saw a man at the scene he thought \u201cwas a crackhead\u201d and suggested this person may be responsible for the murder. <\/p>\n

Peter Augustine (59) denies the murder of Mr Mackey in an alleged attack on May 6th on a street near the Irishman\u2019s home in Manor House, north London.<\/p>\n

He is accused of beating Mr Mackey, who was originally from Callan, Co Kilkenny, and robbing him of his bag, which contained his takeaway dinner and shopping. Mr Mackey died in hospital two days later.<\/p>\n

Before lunch at the Old Bailey, the prosecution called to the stand Det Sgt Glen Peach, the investigating officer in the case. He gave evidence of what the accused said in police interviews in the days after his arrest following Mr Mackey\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The court heard that in one police interview, Mr Augustine said he had \u201cwalked past\u201d Mr Mackey who was lying on the ground in the street. <\/p>\n

He said he asked him: \u201c\u2018You alright guv?\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe never said nothing,\u201d Mr Augustine told police.<\/p>\n

The court heard he said that he just wanted to go for a walk and that he did not kill Mr Mackey. \u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you, I\u2019ve killed spiders, but never humans,\u201d Mr Augustine told police in his interview.<\/p>\n

The accused said he had only come out to get a pint of milk. He said when he saw Mr Mackey lying on the ground, he thought he was \u201ca plank of wood\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Augustine told police he had seen another man \u201cin the corner\u201d on a bike, who he said stared at him. He said he thought that man \u201cwas on crack\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it was him, the way he was looking at me,\u201d Mr Augustine told police. \u201cI thought to myself he is a crackhead with them eyes. He\u2019s flippin\u2019 Mick Jagger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Augustine said that as he was walking past Mr Mackey, he saw the Irishman\u2019s black bag on the ground and thought that \u201cthe wind must have blown it to the side\u201d.<\/p>\n

At this stage of the retelling of his police interview, Mr Augustine, who had earlier left the dock but later re-entered, asked to leave the dock once again.<\/p>\n

According to his police interview, Mr Augustine said he looked at the black bag and thought \u201cI\u2019ll have that. I can put my Nivea in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that he said to Mr Mackey \u201calright boy?\u201d but the pensioner just groaned back at him and his face was red.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen pal, I\u2019m telling you now, I never touched the man,\u201d Mr Augustine told police.<\/p>\n

He identified himself on CCTV walking near to Mr Mackey. He told police he could \u201csee how bad it looked\u201d but he said he was only \u201clooking at the greenery\u201d.<\/p>\n

He repeated that he only took Mr Mackey\u2019s bag to his hotel, where he was living at the time as he was homeless, so he could put his aftershave in it.<\/p>\n

Mr Augustine told police that it was \u201cbang out of order\u201d to suggest he had attacked Mr Mackey. <\/p>\n

He said he had walked away and left him on the ground thinking he was a \u201cf**king pisshead\u201d and that he was \u201cout for the count\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier this morning, Mr Augustine walked out of the dock as a forensic pathologist described the injuries the dead man received in \u201ca sustained assault\u201d.<\/p>\n

Forensic pathologist Matthew Cieka was called to give evidence on Monday morning. <\/p>\n

Nieces and nephews of Mr Mackey, who lived alone after moving to the UK in the late 1950s, were also in the courtroom.<\/p>\n

The pathologist said the victim died from blunt-force head and chest injuries that \u201ccannot be explained by a simple fall\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Mr Mackey had suffered a sustained assault \u201cpossibly involving punches and kicks, including while the victim was on the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Cieka described a series of deep bruises and abrasions on Mr Mackey\u2019s head, neck and torso. He also suffered from bleeding to his brain as well as fractured ribs caused by impact that, he agreed with prosecution barristers, could have been caused by stamping.<\/p>\n

Mr Augustine walked out of the dock as Mr Cieka gave his testimony. <\/p>\n

The prosecution is nearing the end of its evidence in the case, with Mr Augustine scheduled to give evidence in his own defence later on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Last week in the courtroom, Mr Augustine repeatedly interrupted proceedings by shouting from the dock that he \u201cnever hit him \u2013 I just took the bag\u201d.<\/p>\n

The case continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man accused of the London murder of 87-year-old John Mackey told police he saw a man at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,98889,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-173348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-john-mackey","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115526232156060490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}