A man who claims an attacker attempted to murder him by shooting him in the head at a Leisureplex in Blanchardstown, Dublin, has admitted that he shot at a "joyrider" with a legally held shotgun several years earlier.
However he said he did not believe it was this "joyrider" who had shot at him and was "110 per cent" convinced it was the accused, Darren Larkin.
Akef Alquasar, who is Jordanian, was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court yesterday on day three of the trial of Mr Larkin (23), of no fixed address, who denies attempting to murder Mr Alquasar on February 20th, 2006. He also denies two further charges of possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Under cross-examination from Mary Ellen Ring SC, defending, Mr Alquasar said that he kept a legally held Russian single-barrel shotgun in his house which he used for hunting ducks, rabbits and wild pigeon on trips to fields around Baldoyle and the Blessington lakes.
He said "joyriding" in Blanchardstown, where he lived, "was a menace. It was worse than Beirut." He said young families were waking up at 1 or 2 in the morning when cars were bursting into flames. In 1992 he said his pregnant wife nearly died as a result of the activity. She had an appointment for the birth of their daughter to be induced the next morning, but couldn't sleep.
The next day the road was littered with burned-out cars. He said "she was so close to dying" and so exhausted she had problems delivering the baby.
After this incident he said he had taken his shotgun and fired it at the car of a "joyrider" who came out and said "I didn't do it." He said "joyriders" in the area used to laugh at gardaí and stone the fire brigade, but he said: "I stopped them. I'm not saying it was the right way, but it was effective."
Asked by Ms Ring if he could think of a reason why anyone would want to shoot him, the witness said he would not have worked on the door of the Leisureplex, where he was shot, if he had thought his life was in jeopardy.
He said he had had disagreements over buying and selling goods, including alcohol, but nothing that would have amounted to someone wanting to take his life.
Asked if the person he had fired at in the stolen car could have had a dispute with him, he said: "His father told me 'if you see him next time I give you full permission to kick the daylight out of him and bring him down to me'." He said he was known in the area as a fair man and if someone was put out of the Leisureplex it was their fault, not his.
When Ms Ring put it to Mr Alquasar that he had been mistaken as to the identity of his attacker he said: "It was Darren Larkin, the one sitting there, he's the one who shot me, 110 per cent, without a shadow of a doubt." In earlier evidence Mr Alquasar also told Ms Ring that gardaí had once searched his house for firearms. He said he was "amazed" by this and agreed this could have been a few weeks or months after the murder of a man called Paschal Boland.
Anthony Smithers said he was at the Leisureplex in Blanchardstown when he saw Mr Alquasar, the previous witness, throwing bowling shoes at a man who had a gun.
The trial continues today.