FOUR DUBLIN men have gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with murdering a father of three in a city pub two years ago.
Christopher Zambra (33), Galtymore Road, Drimnagh; Damien Johnston (27), Cashel Avenue, Crumlin; Peter Kenny (28), McCarthy’s Terrace, Rialto and Bernard Hempenstall (26), Park Terrace, the Coombe, have all pleaded not guilty to murdering John Carroll.
The 33-year-old from the Charlemont Street area of Dublin was shot dead on February 18th, 2009, in Grumpy Jack’s Pub in the Coombe.
Patrick Gageby, prosecuting, told the eight men and four women of the jury there would be no doubt in their minds that Mr Carroll was murdered. He said the heavily disguised gunman fired a number of shots from a semi-automatic weapon.
“John Carroll was murdered by a person who brought a gun to the pub, chased him for a time and pumped as many bullets as he could into Mr Carroll, who was pronounced dead in a local hospital shortly afterwards,” he said in his opening speech.
“An accessory is a party to a crime,” he continued. “It is the prosecution case that each of these four had something to do with the murder. We say the evidence will establish that each had a hand, act or part in the plan to shoot to kill Mr John Carroll.”
The deceased, he said, had been sitting in a corner of the pub under a television with his back to a door that evening.
“Mr Carroll was seated with three other people, including Bernard Hempenstall,” he said.
A gunman in motorbike gear and a helmet entered the pub at about 9.30pm.
“Mr Carroll was shot at a number of times from a semi-automatic pistol,” said Mr Gageby.
He said the gunman arrived as a pillion passenger on a high-powered motorbike.
“It’s the prosecution case that the pillion passenger, and therefore the gunman, was Peter Kenny, and that the driver was Mr Johnston,” he said, adding that each accused participated in the plan to kill.
“It’s our suggestion that Mr Zambra was the brains behind it, deployed the others and had his finger on the pulse of this operation, before during and afterwards,” he said. “Our suggestion is that Mr Kenny disposed of the gun afterwards. It was never recovered.” He said Mr Hempenstall was involved in orchestrating the crime, and that there was a fifth person involved who was not seated in the dock.
“In an ideal world, all the witnesses we’d proffer to you would be of good character,” he said. “Unfortunately this is not an ideal world, and that is not the case here,” he added.
“We’ll be proffering the evidence of an accomplice,” he said. “He’s in his late 20s and his name is Joey O’Brien. He was implicated in this offence.”
Mr Gageby said this man, the principal prosecution witness, was involved in sourcing the motorbike used, and in relaying information back and forth.
“He’s up to his shoulders, if not his neck, in this,” he said. “You do have to look very carefully at his evidence.”
He described the evidence involved as relevant. “For a couple of days before, there was a plan afoot to murder Mr Carroll.
“Mr Zambra was organising it and met Mr O’Brien. Mr Hempenstall was aware,” he said.
The 12 jurors were then told they would see CCTV footage of the actual killing, from which it would be clear the gunman knew what Mr Carroll looked like and where he would be sitting.
The trial before Mr Justice Barry White is expected to last six weeks.