Three eyewitnesses to the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin in Dublin over four years ago told the Special Criminal Court yesterday they saw the pillion passenger on a motorcycle shoot into her car as it was stopped at traffic lights.
Two nurses also gave evidence that they tried to assist Ms Guerin after the shooting, but could feel no pulse.
They were giving evidence on the fifth day of the trial of Mr John Gilligan (48), who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Veronica Guerin (37) at Naas Road, Dublin, on June 26th, 1996.
Mr Victor Poleon, Mr Fergus McCarthy and Mr Michael Kirby told the court they saw the gunman fire a number of shots into Ms Guerin's red Opel Calibra car as it was stopped at the junction of the Naas Road and Boot Road.
Mr Poleon, who was in his truck beside Ms Guerin's car, said: "I heard a bang, I looked round and I could see a man on the back of a bike shooting. It took a second to realise he was actually shooting into the car. She didn't react. She slumped to one side. The guy who was driving the bike shouted something like `That's' it, that's enough' and the bike took off."
Mr Poleon said the motorcycle took off towards Dublin. The motorcycle was large and white, and the driver and passenger both wore black helmets and black leather jackets.
He said the driver looked straight ahead and the pillion passenger was toying with the gun. The gunman had a black moustache and was "a fairly big man" in his late 30s. He got out of his truck and dialled 999 and asked for an ambulance and gardai.
Mr Fergus McCarthy said he was driving to work from his home in Rathcoole when he noticed a motorcycle with two people on it on the hard shoulder of the dual carriageway.
He pulled up behind a red car stopped at traffic lights, and the motorcycle pulled up beside the car on the driver's side. "I thought that the people were looking into the car when all of a sudden I heard bang, bang, bang," he said. Mr McCarthy said the motorcycle took off and was followed by a blue car, which broke the lights, and then another car.
Mr Michael Kirby told the court he heard "an initial crack". "There was a gunman at a red car. The gunman was firing into the car. He was firing into the red car through the driver's side window of the red car. There was an initial crack followed by five other cracks, that would have been six altogether," he said. He saw a blue Volvo car follow the motorcycle "in hot pursuit, I thought", followed by a Nissan Primera. They all went towards Newlands Cross.
Nurses Ms Michelle Wall and Ms Brenda Grogan told the court they tried to help Veronica Guerin.
Ms Grogan said: "I put my ear to her face but felt no breath." Ms Wall said when she got to the red sports car she saw a woman's body with her legs on the driver's side and the upper part of her body slumped over on the passenger side. A man was kneeling at the car trying to help the woman and she asked him if the woman was OK.
"He said she answered him, he said like a groan." Ms Wall said: "When we lifted the body back on to the seat I knew by her colour, the way she looked, that she was dead."
Earlier the court acceded to a defence application to remove all witnesses in the trial, including an Assistant Commissioner, Mr Tony Hickey, the officer in charge of the murder investigation, from the courtroom while evidence was being heard. However, at the request of the prosecution, Ms Guerin's husband, Mr Graham Turley, was allowed to remain in court.
The trial continues on Monday.