Dermot Phelan: Barrister accused of murder was more than one metre away from 'intruder' when fatal shot fired, court hears
Evidence has been given that leading barrister Diarmuid Phelan had shouted at two trespassers on his farm to "get back" before he fired three shots from his Smith & Wesson revolver
A State Pathologist has told a murder trial jury that she retrieved a deformed lead projectile from the head of a trespasser who was shot dead on a law professor's farm.
The jury also heard from the expert witness that the absence of soot and powder tattooing around the bullet's entry hole indicated that there was a distance of greater than a metre between the victim and the shooter when the gun was fired.
Evidence has been given that leading barrister Diarmuid Phelan had shouted at two trespassers on his farm to "get back" before he fired three shots from his Smith & Wesson revolver.
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It is the State's case that two of the three shots were fired into the air and the third shot connected with Keith Conlon. In her opening speech, Roisin Lacey SC said the prosecution's case is that when the third shot was fired, the gun was pointed in the direction of the deceased who was shot in the back of the head when he had turned away to leave.
Mr Phelan (56) has pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on February 24, 2022.
The accused man is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
Mr Conlon, from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident on February 22 and died at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.
Witness Stephen Cole, a technical director of Acume Forensic, today told Ms Lacey, prosecuting, that he had been supplied with the deceased's postmortem report and he had produced a 3D graphic package to display a gunshot wound.
Under cross-examination, the witness agreed with Sean Guerin SC, defending, that his graphics would aid the jury in understanding where the injury was located and how it related to the internal anatomy of the head.
"You make no effort to represent how the body would appear in movement in a dynamic real life situation?" asked Mr Guerin, which the witness agreed with.
The next witness, State pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers told Ms Lacey that she carried out a postmortem on Mr Conlon at Dublin District Mortuary on February 25, 2022.
She said she was aware the deceased had received a gunshot wound to the head and had been brought to Tallaght Hospital, where he was placed on life support.
The expert witness was informed that Mr Conlon had been pronounced dead at 3.15pm on February 24 at Tallaght Hospital.
She testified that a CT scan of the brain showed a complete fracture of the right parietal bone extending towards the front and across the coronal suture of the brain, where the front and parietal bone connect.
The witness said the scan showed multiple tiny metallic fragments throughout the trajectory of the bullet in the brain matter on the right parietal and right frontal bones.
She said inside the brain tissue was a haemorrhaging track where the bullet had gone through.
In her evidence, the witness said Mr Conlon weighed 67kgs and was five foot 5 or 6 inches in height. There was a plaster on the back of his head covering the gunshot wound. She said the entry wound of the gunshot was located three centimetres behind Mr Conlon's right ear and five centimetres above that.
The gunshot wound was at the level of 1.64cm above the unshod heel. There was an area of purple bruising below the entrance wound and the track wound had penetrated the scalp.
She said a deformed lead projectile measuring .8cm had been retrieved from the deceased's head.
Dr Okkers said the projectile went from back to front within the skull cavity, slightly upwards and to the left and then towards the frontal lobe area of the skull.
Asked whether it was a "distant" gunshot, the witness said there was no powder tattooing or soot and the distance had been greater than one metre.
There was bruising above the right ear and behind the head and neck.
She said the brain was quite swollen from the injury and it was heavy.
Dr Okkers will continue to give her evidence tomorrow.
Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford told the jury this evening that they would not hear any more evidence today and Dr Okkers would continue her evidence at 2pm on Thursday, when everyone was "fresh".
The judge informed the jury that the prosecution's case is close to conclusion.
Earlier, Detective Sergeant Mary Fitzpatrick commented on the results of a compilation by the defence of 89 crimes in the Tallaght area, which were documented in the local press over a 22-year period.
The witness said she was asked to review newspaper reports of incidents in proximity to the farm. These included shootings, murders, robberies, drug dealing, burglaries, vehicles set on fire and sheep attacks by dogs on others farms. The locations of some of the incidents were not in close proximity to the farm whilst others were.
Among the incidents reported on was a fire on the defendant's property at Hazelgrove in 2016, when it was a disused golf club. Photos from inside the golf club before the fire occurred were shown to the jury as well as ones from after the fire.
Michael Bowman SC, defending, commented: "It is destroyed effectively, burned to a cinder". Det Sgt Fitzpatrick said a lot of damage had taken place.
One newspaper extract from 'The Echo Newspaper' in Tallaght was shown to the jury on a screen in the courtroom and was headlined as "Dogs killing young lambs during savage attack" in Corbally in Saggart.
Mr Bowman said the population of Tallaght in 2022 was between 180,000 and 200,000 people and he described it as a "socially deprived" area. Det Sgt Fitzpatrick said Tallaght is the same size as Limerick City where there are three garda stations whereas in Tallaght there is only one.
Mr Bowman said the vast majority of people in Tallaght are hard-working and decent but that there is also a cohort within the community who seem to interfere with their lives, the community and their peace of mind. The witness commented that every part of society now has a cohort of people who commit crime.
In re-examination, the detective agreed with Roisin Lacey SC, prosecuting, that Mr Phelan had purchased Hazelgrove in 2015. Ms Lacey asked the witness whether Mr Conlon, Kallum Coleman or Robin Duggan - the three trespassers on the accused's land - were individually or collectively prosecuted for any of these offences she had researched. The detective said none of them were.
Ms Lacey said the incidents in the press reports went back to 2000, when Mr Conlon was 14 and Mr Coleman “wasn’t even born".
In her opening address, Ms Lacey said the jury will hear evidence that on the day in question three men including Mr Conlon had trespassed on a wooded area of Mr Phelan's land while hunting foxes or badgers.
Counsel said that Mr Phelan told gardai he became concerned about a dog running loose on his land towards his sheep and shot it with his Winchester rifle, whereupon he said three men immediately "exploded" from the wooded area and began threatening him.
The 12 jurors were also told by the State that Mr Phelan said he was shaking with fear and "scrambled" up a bank to get away but when the deceased man Keith Conlon and a second man kept coming he believed they were "coming to fulfil the threats they had made".
As they got closer, Mr Phelan said he reached for his Smith & Wesson revolver in his pocket and fired in the air over their heads but was "stunned when one man went down", the court has heard.
In her opening speech, Ms Lacey said she expects the defence case to be that the accused was entitled to discharge the firearm in a legitimate act of self defence. They will say that it was not done with the intention of causing the bullet to penetrate Mr Conlon's body and that the penetration was an accidental, unintended result, she stated.
The State's case, Ms Lacey highlighted, is that when the third shot was fired, the gun was pointed in the direction of the deceased who was shot in the back of the head when he had turned away to leave. "In those circumstances we say the accused intended to kill or cause serious injury," counsel said.
The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford and a jury of nine men and three women.
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