THE JURY in the trial of the man charged with murdering rugby player Shane Geoghegan will resume deliberations on Monday.
Barry Doyle (25) with addresses at Portland Row, Dublin, and Hyde Road, Limerick, told investigating gardaí that he shot the 28-year-old. However, in his trial, the father of three has pleaded not guilty to murdering him, arguing he was coerced into confessing.
Mr Geoghegan was shot dead in a suspected case of mistaken identity near his home in Clonmore, Kilteragh, Dooradoyle, Limerick, on November 9th, 2008.
The jury yesterday heard from the prosecution, defence and the trial judge before beginning to deliberate.
Seán Guerin SC, prosecuting, said Mr Geoghegan had been on his way home that night, “perfectly inoffensively and entirely innocently”, when he had been gunned down unjustly.
“There’s no question that it was murder,” he said in his closing speech. “The question is: was Barry Doyle the person who committed the murder?”
He said that three features proved that Mr Doyle’s admissions in custody in February 2009 were truthful, the first being a sketch by Doyle of the scene. “If you superimpose it on the map you have, it matches the scene,” he said.
Defence barrister Martin O’Rourke asked the jury what Barry Doyle had told the gardaí that they hadn’t already told him, referring to evidence they had put to him in three days of interviews before the admissions.
He said it was the defence’s case that there was psychological pressure, coercion and inducement and that his client was the victim of threats and promises.
He said the defendant’s solicitor had done a deal with the Garda that if he admitted to the murder, the mother of his sick child, Victoria Gunnery, would be released from custody.
“Do the right thing. Don’t keep Vicky away from the young one any longer than she has to be,” he quoted from a memo.
“What could that mean other than ‘Tell us what we want to hear and Vicky will be released’?” he suggested. “There’s the threat and the promise.”
Mr Justice Paul Carney told the 11 jurors to have due regard to the fact that there was no corroboration of the interviews. However, he told them that if they all agreed beyond a reasonable doubt that Barry Doyle was guilty, then they could convict him.