A judge told a murder trial jury that an issue had arisen from a French farmworker being translated as saying law professor Diarmuid Phelan had a “really p*ssed off” expression before a man was shot on his Co Dublin farm.
The word “énervé” used by Pierre Godreu to describe Mr Phelan’s expression does not carry a slang translation and has a range of meanings ranging “from edgy to annoyed”, Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford said.
She issued the clarification on Monday, the fourth day of the trial at the Central Criminal Court of Mr Phelan (56), a senior counsel and law professor, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Keith Conlon at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Co Dublin on February 24th, 2022.
Mr Conlon was one of three trespassers fox hunting on the farm on February 22nd, 2022. The prosecution contend Mr Phelan shot a dog belonging to one trespasser, Kallum Coleman, heated exchanges with the trespassers followed and Mr Phelan later fired two shots into the air from his revolver, a third shot penetrated Mr Conlon’s body, he was critically injured and pronounced dead two days later.
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Mr Phelan, the prosecution contend, had the requisite intent for murder.
The jury has heard Mr Phelan told gardaí he believed, if he had not reacted immediately, “he would have got me” and he was “terrified”. The prosecution has said it understands the defence case as being Mr Phelan was entitled to discharge his firearm as he did and it was a legitimate act of self-defence not done with intent to penetrate the body of Mr Conlon.
When the trial resumed before the jury on Monday afternoon, the judge told them an issue had arisen which primarily related to translation.
She said, during evidence last week, a French national, Pierre Godreu – who was working as a farm hand on Mr Phelan’s farm on February 22nd, 2022 – used a particular word to describe Mr Phelan’s expression when he came out of woodlands after the dog was shot and before the shooting of Mr Conlon.
Mr Godreu had described Mr Phelan’s expression as “énervé”, which was translated as “really p*ssed off”, the judge said. That was a slang or “somewhat vulgar” translation and the word énervé does not carry that, she said.
The tone used by Mr Godreu was not designed to convey something in slang and he had not used any intensifier word along with the word énervé, she added.
The word énervé has a range of meanings ranging “from edgy to annoyed”, she said.
The trial resumed with cross-examination of Det Gda Pádraig Coone, from An Garda Síochána’s mapping section, who was asked about matters including the terrain on the farm.
Seán Guerin SC, for Mr Phelan, said the shot which struck Mr Conlon struck him about 6cm below the top of his head. He said a shot that struck an individual 6cm from the top of their head at the top of a slope would have cleared their head by almost 1.5m if they were standing at the bottom of the slope.
There had been evidence the gap between Mr Phelan and the two individuals approaching him had closed to 2m before any shot was fired, counsel said. The witness agreed that, assuming the three shots fired were from the same trajectory, which was a matter for the jury, a person coming up the hill and approaching the shooter “would be walking into the line of fire”.
In re-examination, the witness agreed with John Byrne SC, for the prosecution, his calculations applied on the assumption the shooter was firing shots on the same trajectory without any variation.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
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