A Dublin man accused of shooting dead two family friends in 2010 says he hid out for weeks before he eventually carried out the killings under threat of being killed himself.
Gary Howard (24), of Emerald Street, Dublin 1, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Patrick Mooney (58) and Brendan Molyneaux (46) at Pearse House on January 10th, 2010.
In a Garda interview, Mr Howard said he hid in his house for weeks and “wouldn’t open the door to anybody” after he had been forced, under threat of being shot, in November 2009 to kill Brendan Molyneaux, whom he said was “an IRA head” who “knew the Provos were after him”.
Brendan Molyneaux and his friend Patrick Mooney were found with fatal gunshot wounds in Mr Mooney’s city centre flat at about 7pm on Sunday, January 10th.
Yesterday the jury was shown extracts of some of the
33 hours of Garda interviews recorded on video during the course of Gary Howard’s five-day detention at Kevin Street Garda station.
The court heard that Howard initially denied carrying out the murders, but confessed on the third day after he had seen a witness statement from his uncle Thomas Nalty who had been present at the shootings.
In the video interviews Howard sobbed, shook and at one stage had to leave to get physically sick as he told gardaí that he had “no choice” in carrying out the murders, but that he “was not a cold-blooded killer”.