A FARMER told a murder trial jury yesterday that he grabbed gun from Mr Brendan O'Donnell after he had made the farmer stop his ear and forced his way in. Mr Edward Cleary said the ear was then surrounded by gardai, who dragged Mr O'Donnell out.
Mr Cleary said Mr O'Donnell had exclaimed, "I'm fucked now," as he lay on the ground.
He was giving evidence on the third day of the trial of Mr O'Donnell (21), a native of Co Clare but of no fixed abode, who has denied the murder of Ms Imelda Riney (29), her son Liam (3) and Father Joseph Walsh in 1994.
Mr O'Donnell has also denied falsely imprisoning Father Walsh (37), who was curate of Eyrecourt, Co Galway, kidnapping Ms Fiona Sampson and Mr Cleary on May 7th, 1994 and hijacking vehicles driven by each of them on the same date.
He has further denied having a shotgun and ammunition with intent to endanger life and for unlawful purposes on May 7th 1994.
Mr Cleary said he was a widower and lived at Loughrea, Co Galway, but was originally from Derrygoolin, Whitegate, Co Clare.
He told Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, that he was driving his car on a quiet country road near Woodford, Co Galway, between 9.15 and 9.30 a.m that day. He turned a bend and saw a man pointing a gun at him. There was a girl beside him.
"He had the rifle pointed straight at me and kept screaming at me, `Stop the car or I'll blow your head off'," Mr Cleary said.
He stopped the car. He said he thought of reversing back down the road, "but I knew from the mood he was in he'd have shot me dead."
Mr O'Donnell asked him if he was "a cop". Mr Cleary said he was not, and appealed to Mr O'Donnell not to shoot anyone.
He said Mr O'Donnell walked up to the car and put out his hand to open the door, but all the locking buttons were down. He said the man had the girl in front of him. He was holding the rifle to his shoulder.
Mr Cleary said he got out of the car. When he went to pull up the button of the back door, he could see a Garda squad car behind him and gardai moving along the inside of the ditch beside the road.
"One of the gardai shouted, `Give up, O'Donnell, you're surrounded'," Mr Cleary said. A warning shot was also fired by one garda.
The man put the rifle to the girl's head and said: "Back off to fuck now or I'll blow her fucking head off", the witness said.
He said Mr O'Donnell pushed the girl into the back of the car and sat in beside her. "He said to me `You've to do a bit of driving'", Mr Cleary added.
The witness said he sat in the car and drove a few yards. The gun was being held to the back of his head. He could see more Garda cars up the road, which was now completely blocked off.
He said Mr O'Donnell told him to turn the car. He did so, but he deliberately manoeuvred badly and did not reverse as far as he should have. "I wanted to give the gardai a chance to get to the car, he said.
Mr O'Donnell put up the gun and fired a shot through the roof, he continued. "He kept screaming at me to `Turn the car, turn the fucking car'."
Mr Cleary said he was then aware of gardai at the car and he grabbed the barrel of the gun and held it for two or three minutes. Then he pulled the rifle off the man and put it in the front seat.
He said a garda tapped at one of the windows. The girl pulled up the door button and the garda lifted her out in his arms. She was "terribly distressed" and in "a shocking condition", Mr Cleary said.
He said he could not remember Mr O'Donnell saying anything at that stage. "The only words I remember him saying when he was lying down on the ground was, I'm fucked now'."
Mr Cleary said he had expected to be shot at any minute during his ordeal. "I hadn't expected anything like that in that part of the country."
Asked by Mr Charleton if he could identify the man with the gun, he pointed to Mr O'Donnell.
Mr Andreas Hannefeld said he was at home at his farm at Allendara East, Woodford, Co Galway on the morning of May 7th, 1994.
He had a conversation with his wife about something on the radio and then ensured that his shotgun was handy. He also sent his family upstairs.
He was looking out the front window and down the road when he saw a man and a girl coming towards the gate. He did not know either of them but could see them very well because it was a bright sunny day.
Mr Hannefeld said he dialled 999 and told the girl what he had seen. He saw the man and girl come up through the fields, taking cover by the foliage of the trees.
It took the two people about five minutes to get to the second gate of the house. Then they stopped.
Mr Hannefeld said he yelled out of the upstairs window at the man. "I said `F... off, you stupid idiot.' I yelled at the top of my lungs."
He said there was not a lot of response from the man. Neither he nor the girl was moving.
"The man said he only wanted my car," the witness continued. He told the man he could not have the car, making an excuse that his wife had the keys and was not there.
"He said if I didn't get the key he would come back later or somebody else would come back and he would kill me," Mr Hannefeld said.
At this point, Mr Hannefeld said, he had a loaded shotgun in his hand. He fired a shot in response to the threat from the man.
He fired the gun away from the couple, Mr Hannefeld said. "The man was very upset and he said, `Fuck you, you English bastard or whatever you are'".
Then the man and the girl went off, he said. He again phoned the gardai.
Mr Kevin Mooney said he lived at Allendara East, about half a mile from the Hannefelds. At about 9.30 a.m. on May 7th, 1994, he saw a man and girl outside.
He locked the door. The man asked if he had a car and he told him he did not. The man put a rifle to the glass, but then went off towards Woodford.