A FORMER Ireland international pool player, who was left disfigured following an alleged acid attack, told a court he was “unrecognisable” following the incident due to the extent of his injuries.
Ian Pickford (24), of Garryowen, Limerick, told the trial of his alleged attacker, John Cross, that he had no doubt it was the accused who threw an acid substance in his face.
Mr Pickford, a former Limerick intermediate pool champion who was also capped for Ireland at junior level, identified Mr Cross in court as the person who flung the “corrosive substance” at him.
Mr Cross (35), with an address at St Lawrence’s Park, Garryowen, denies one count of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Mr Pickford during a house party at Mr Cross’s home in the early hours of June 14, 2020.
Today (Tuesday), on the opening day of the trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, Mr Pickford gave evidence of the impact of being burned by an acid substance.
“I was unrecognisable at the time it happened. It was the worst I ever felt, I felt terrible and I didn’t know why it happened,” Mr Pickford told the court.
He said that following the attack he went to his parents’ home, located nearby, and his father rushed him to University Hospital Limerick.
Mr Pickford said he was transferred to the specialist burns unit at Cork University Hospital before being transferred to St James’s Hospital in Dublin, where he spent three months undergoing specialist treatment.
The jury of seven women and five men were shown photographs of extensive injuries to Mr Pickford’s head, face, and chest.
“I had multiple skin grafts put on my face, which were taken from my left thigh and put across my forehead, my cheek, and my two eyelids,” Mr Pickford explained.
Mr Pickford said he underwent four surgeries to try to heal the scarring on his upper body.
“I had terrible pain after the procedures across my face, one of the skin grafts never took and I got a blood clot so they had to redo it,” he said.
He added that he lost some sight in his left eye and he no longer plays pool competitively.
Mr Pickford, who said he had known Mr Cross for a number of years and lived close to his house, was asked by prosecution barrister John O’Sullivan to show the jury up close the extensive scarring.
Mr Pickford said that a few months before the alleged attack, he had been charged before the courts with having a “very small amount of cocaine” which he said was “for a friend”.
Under cross examination, Mr Pickford agreed with Mr Cross’ barrister, senior counsel Brian McInerney, that he had consumed at least eight cans of cider on the night prior to the alleged attack, but disagreed with Mr McInerney that he was “drunk”.
Mr Pickford accepted that results of blood tests taken at UHL on the night of the alleged attack showed he had 198 milligrams of alcohol per deciliter of blood.
Mr McInerney put it to Mr Pickford that the hospital had provided a chart which explained that 50-100mg/dL can result in “flushing, slowing of reflexes, and impairment”, and that over 100mg/dL could result in “a depression of the central nervous system … and you had almost double this level”.
Mr Pickford replied: “I still know who done it to me, I seen who did it to me”.
Mr Pickford agreed with Mr McInerney that he had told Gardaí that a “tall man with a husky voice” who he did not know had said to him immediately after the alleged incident “that’s what you get for being a rat”.
He said he believed this was a comment “referring to the time I got caught with the cocaine” but he did not know why he had been attacked.
Mr Pickford said the drugs case against him was “struck out” by the courts after he was discharged from hospital.
Answering Mr McInerney, Mr Pickford said he took the phrase “rat” to mean a person “giving information to the Gardaí”, but there was no evidence Mr Pickford had given any information about anything.
He denied suggestions by Mr McInerney that he was trying to blame “an entirely innocent man” for the attack because he was afraid of identifying the actual culprit.
Mr McInerney told Mr Pickford: “I take no pleasure in these questions, it (the attack) should not have happened, and it is to be condemned, but I put it to you that it was not John Cross, it was someone else that you’re afraid of.”
Mr Pickford repeated that “it was John Cross that did it”, and alleged that on the night Mr Cross threatened him not to tell anyone what had happened.
Mr Pickford agreed with Mr McInerney that he had initially told Gardaí that Mr Cross and another man had helped him out of Mr Cross’ house after the alleged attack.
In his direct evidence in court, Mr Pickford said he had not immediately told his parents, hospital staff, nor Gardaí that Mr Cross was the alleged attacker “out of fear of the consequences of what would happen to my family if I did”.
The trial continues.
