A Limerick man "directed" his son and another man to murder his wife's lover, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mr Patrick Brennan had instructed his son and the then boyfriend of his daughter to murder Mr Sean Colbert, who had been having an affair with his estranged wife, the court was told.
The court heard that on the evening of his death, Mr Colbert was walking up the steps to his home when three shots were fired.
Bullets found at the scene and injuries to his body indicated that a .22 revolver was fired at him, penetrating the lung which was the main cause of death.
Mr Brennan (53), of St Ita's Street, St Mary's Park, Limerick, is charged with the murder of Mr Colbert (53), a father of eight, of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, who was killed on August 9th, 1996.
Mr William O'Neill (27), of no fixed abode but previously of Garryowen, Co Limerick, and Mr Patrick Brennan's son, Mr Andrew Brennan (28), of St Munchin's Street, St Mary's Park, are also charged with the murder.
Opening the trial, Mr Ralph Sutton SC prosecuting, told the jury that Mr Patrick Brennan maintained an anger against Mr Colbert after deciding that he had been having an affair with his wife.
Mr Sutton said the prosecution would contend that Mr Andrew Brennan and Mr O'Neill were the two men who fired the fatal shots at the deceased and that Mr Patrick Brennan devised, directed and operated the killing of Mr Colbert.
Mr Sutton said before the shots were heard, two men were seen approaching the vicinity, dressed in black and wearing balaclava-type hats.
Shortly after the shots were heard, two men were seen running away from the scene but whether these were Mr Andrew Brennan and Mr O'Neill was a matter for the jury, Mr Sutton said.
State Pathologist Dr John Harbison told the court that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the lower back that travelled up the body through the lung, causing a right haemothorax.
"That means a quantity of blood in the right side of his chest and that this was due to a bullet wound through the right lung.
"And as a contributory cause, part of the same bullet injury, laceration of the right common carotid artery in the right side of the neck due to the same bullet," he said.
Prof Harbison extracted two .22 caliber bullets from the body of Mr Colbert, one which ended in the neck and the other in the buttock area.
The second bullet would not have been life-threatening, he said.
The deceased had been bending forward when the shooting occurred, thus enabling the bullet to pass from the base of his back on his right side to his neck, Prof Harbison said. A son of the deceased, Mr Andrew Colbert, told the court he had been at home watching television when his father returned home moments before being shot at close range.
"I heard a loud bang. I got up and ran to the window. I heard another bang as I ran to the window. I saw my father at the top of the step, screaming.
"I seen two men standing outside with balaclavas on," he said.
"I ran to the front door. The window was shattered. I opened the door and he grabbed on to the pillar and fell in and fell back on to his back.
"I heard two, possibly three" gunshots. I know for definite there were two," Mr Colbert told the court.
The men were dressed in dark clothes and were "well over five ft," he said. He saw the "two men running at the end of the road down towards Caledonian Park".
The trial before Mr Justice Quirke and a jury of eight men and four women continues today.