Convicted murderer accused of stabbing great uncle to death tells jury: “I was in the fight of my life”

Direece Roche, 30, denies the murder of Fintan McDwyer

A man accused of stabbing his great uncle to death has told a murder trial: “I was in the fight of my life.”

Direece Roche, 30, climbed in through the bedroom window of Fintan McDwyer in the early hours of the morning of June 30 last year. He then slashed Mr McDwyer, 64, to the neck severing his jugular vein, before stabbing him to the face, head and body 71 times, a court has heard.

He told the police he was intending to steal Mr McDwyer’s dog, before alleging that the 64-year-old had sexually abused him as a child.

Roche admits killing Mr McDwyer, but claimed he was acting in self-defence with a simultaneous loss of control, after he said Mr McDwyer was armed with a knife and had mentioned his ‘abuse’ of him, jurors were previously told.

He also stated he had no recollection of stabbing Mr McDwyer and had no intent to injure him.

The defendant denies murder, and an alternate charge of manslaughter, and is on trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Giving evidence, Roche described two incidents when he was a young boy in which he alleges Mr Dwyer sexually abused him.

“I just felt queasy, he tried to pin me down,” he said. The defendant added that he had not told anyone of the alleged assaults.

The court previously heard that he was convicted of murder when he was 16, and was jailed from 2011 to 2023. He was released in September of that year, and it was roughly six weeks before the attack on Mr Dwyer that they met in Platt Field’s Park whilst he was walking his dog.

“He mentioned about the dog being named Sammy and I was confused. It was originally owned by Maureen [Mr Dwyer’s sister and mum of Roche’s mother, Samantha Touhey]. I was confused why the dog had the same name, and I wanted to get the dog,” he said.

“I just latched onto it.”

On June 30, he was captured on CCTV walking around neighbours houses wearing all black clothing.

“I was going out to commit a burglary, I just had a torch,” he said. “I went through his bedroom window. I didn’t want no interaction with him at all.

“I intended to take Sammy. I didn’t want to interact with him, I just wanted to take Sammy and leave.”

Whilst climbing in through his bedroom window, Mr Dwyer woke up and challenged him, he said. The defendant said he repeatedly asked ‘where’s Sammy’ before Mr Dwyer realised who he was and said his name.

“The game was up. I said ‘just give me the dog and I will go’. He then said something like ‘your mum used to struggle, she didn’t fight me like you’,” the defendant told the court.

He then described that Mr Dwyer ‘ran at him with a knife’ before there was a struggle. He said he remembered ‘lashing out’ and ‘hitting’ Mr Dwyer, but could not remember stabbing him.

“I had to get this guy off me, I had to get help, I had to escape. It was chaotic. I was emotionally all over the place,” he said. “I was in the fight of my life.”

In cross examination, he accepted that he was on licence at the time, and any further offences would see him back behind bars. He also accepted that he had not bought any dog food or items to control the dog, explaining that he acted on ‘impulse’.

“I could have walked away, and I should have done,” he added. Prosecutor Bill Baker KC suggested he was telling a 'pack of lies', to which the defendant replied: "No, I'm not lying."

Roche, of Berkeley Avenue, Longsight, denies murder

Proceeding.