A garda who arrived at the scene of a killing in Raheny a year ago told the Central Criminal Court he still had trouble believing how gruesome it was.
Garda Thomas O'Connor said he had never seen anything like it in life or in the movies.
He was giving evidence at the trial of a 34-year-old man accused of the murder of his uncle at his home on Edenmore Drive in Raheny on 10 February 2007.
Henry McLaren denies murdering 61-year-old Thomas Dempsey.
The court was told this afternoon that Mr McLaren was seen at the door of the house at Edenmore Drive, naked from the waist up and covered in blood.
The scene was described as being spattered with blood and other material.
The jury of seven men and five women was told the main issue it had to decide was whether or not the accused man was insane at the time of the killing.
Earlier, prosecution counsel Patrick Gageby told the jury there was not going to be any great controversy about Mr McLaren's mental state at the time.
The jury heard Mr McLaren had been staying with his uncle who was described as a very quiet, harmless man who had some minor mental health problems of his own.
At 3pm on Saturday 10 February the neighbours heard a series of commotions as if someone was being badly beaten.
Mr McLaren appeared at the door. When he was asked ‘Where's Tommy?’, he replied ‘Tommy's gone to f**ing hell, not heaven.’ He was bloodstained and in a highly agitated state and said ‘he's burning, he's burning in hell.’
Thomas Dempsey's body was found on the floor of the hallway and he had suffered massive head injuries and had been savagely beaten with a hatchet.
Mr Gageby said Mr McLaren appeared to have some very unusual thoughts in relation to race, music and golf.
