A TATTOO artist charged with the murder of a man in Cork said he had intended to scare him when he brought the sword used in the fatal attack with him.
Chef and father-of-two Ian Baitson, 33, suffered rapid blood loss when he was struck with a sword in the Eurostar car park in Cobh, Co Cork on March 15, 2024.
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He died at Cork University Hospital on March 19, 2024.
Dylan Scannell has denied murdering Mr Baitson in the Central Criminal Court in Cork, but admitted manslaughter.
Today, the 31-year-old, of O’Rahilly Street in Cobh, gave evidence in the case.
He said that he was “sorry” for what had occurred.
He said: “I knew Ian since we were teenagers. We were friends.”
Scannell said he became a drug addict in his early teens.
He claimed that a month before the incident he was taken to Cork University Hospital after he suffered a fall from a roof.
He claimed that he had signed himself out of hospital even though medics were concerned about possible brain injuries.
He added that he had loaned Mr Baitson money to pay off a drug debt and that he also owed him for drugs he had sold to him.
The dad-of-two said that Mr Baitson had come to him as he “owed a man a few quid”.
SWORD RECEIVED AS GIFT
Scannell said he was also experiencing difficulties because he owed to a third party which put the lives of him and his loved ones “in danger”.
He said he received the sword used in the attack as a gift from a client when he had a tattoo shop which subsequently closed.
Scannell said he took the sword to the Eurospar car park on March 15, 2024, when he was meeting Mr Baitson before he was “paranoid” about a text he had sent him about men in Coolock, Dublin.
He insisted that he brought the sword to the car park for “protection” and never intended to harm Ian Baitson.
‘I JUST WANTED TO SCARE HIM’
He said: “I just wanted to scare him. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I didn’t think that by hitting him in the leg I would cause him any damage. I want to say I’m sorry. I would do anything to take it back.”
Prosecuting counsel Donal O’Sullivan put it to him that Mr Baitson had €185 in his pocket for him when they met in the car park.
He said that Scannell did not take the money from him and instead attacked him with a ‘savage looking sword”.
He was asked what he meant when he sent Mr Baitson a text where he stated he was going to “smash” him. The accused said he didn’t know.
THREATENING TEXTS
A text message which Scannell sent to Mr Baitson in which made threats of a sexual nature was read out.
Scannell said that he was a drug addict at the time and “that (the content of the message) is not me”.
The prosecuting counsel said that Mr Scannell had also typed out a message to Mr Baitson in which he spoke of chopping off his fingers.
Asked if this meant that Mr Scannell planned to hurt Mr Baitson, he replied: “No.”
‘ONLY SORRY FOR YOURSELF’
Mr O’Sullivan said that Dylan Scannell insisted that he was “sorry”, adding: “You are sorry. But only for yourself.”
In the period before his death, Mr Baitson maintained in texts he owed Scannell “less than €500”. But the killer insisted in replies that he was owed €2,500.
The trial previously heard evidence from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster who said Mr Baitson died of haemorrhage and shock complicated by brain damage due to lack of blood supply from an injury caused by a sharp force weapon.
She told the jury of six men and six women that Mr Baitson “would have bled very rapidly and very profusely”.
He was struck from behind the left knee with a sword which cut through muscle, artery and bone.
She stated that the blow caused a fracture to the knee bone and sliced through the two bones below the knee — the tibia and fibula.
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