The jury in the trial of a law professor who is accused of murdering a trespasser on his farm has been sent home for a second day, having been told by the judge that there is a “difficulty” as the next prosecution witness is unavailable.
Diarmuid Phelan (56) has pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on February 24th, 2022.
Mr Phelan is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
Addressing the 12 jurors at the Central Criminal Court on Friday morning, Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford said: “We have a difficulty today, the next prosecution witness is not available to the court today and we are not in a position to proceed with the evidence because of that”.
The judge said she would put the matter back to Monday at 2pm.
The judge warned the jury of nine men and three women about using social media and asked them not to undertake any independent research concerning the case.
On Thursday, Ms Justice Lankford sent the jury away until this morning, telling the 12 members of the panel that for reasons outside of her control there was no work for them.
In her opening address Roisin Lacey SC 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.
Ms Lacey said that Mr Phelan told gardaí 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.
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.
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 on Monday afternoon before Ms Justice Lankford and the jurors.
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