Can at possible murder scene traced to Dublin shop, court hears

Gardaí traced a can of Red Bull found at a suspected murder scene from a factory in Switzerland to a shop in south Dublin, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Det Sgt Daniel Kelly of Crumlin Garda Station gave evidence of tracking the can during the trial of 31-year-old Gary Flynn of Rossfield Drive in Tallaght.

Mr Flynn has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Seamus ‘Shay’ O’Byrne at Tymon Park North in Tallaght on March 13th, 2009.

Det Sgt Kelly told Judge Patrick McCarthy and the jury of nine men and three women that a can of Red Bull was among the exhibits collected from the scene where Mr O’Byrne was shot dead.

Gardaí found it by a wall where the dead man's partner Sharon Rattigan had wrestled the gunman to the ground before he shot her in the leg and ran away. Det Sgt Kelly noted that the can had a stamp on it with a date, time and serial number.

He told prosecuting counsel Alex Owens SC that he went to a Spar shop in Ballymount in south Dublin where he inspected the cans of Red Bull and found 25 more with the same number.

He then travelled to Switzerland to one of only two factories in the world that make the energy soft drink. There he was told that each can is marked with a best before date that is exactly two years later than the date on which the can is made.

It then has a line number, a batch number and the time it was stamped. From this, the manager of the Red Bull factory was able to say that the can found at the scene was one of a maximum of 800 produced with that code.

The can was traced to the Irish distributor in Clondalkin who was able to show that they delivered the can to the Spar in Ballymount on January 16th, 2009.

The court then heard from Garda Patrick Tarrant who told Mr Owens that he viewed CCTV footage from the same Spar shop taken on the day Mr O'Byrne was shot dead.

Garda Tarrant produced nine stills from the CCTV footage. He told Mr Owens that the stills showed a man, known to him as Garrett O’Brien, buying two cans of Red Bull at 6.35pm.

Mr O’Byrne was shot shortly after 8pm. Garda Tarrant said that a green rain jacket Mr O’Brien was wearing matched that found in a vehicle believed to have been used by the gang they believe killed Mr O’Byrne.

Mr Owens has said that the prosecution intends to show that Mr Flynn was part of a “murder gang” that formed and executed a plot to kill Seamus O’Byrne. The trial continues Tuesday.