A CO TIPPERARY farmer probably thrashed around trying to free himself when he was bound to a chair and shot in the leg after armed and masked intruders broke into his home, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, said Mr Danny Fanning (71) might have lived had a tourniquet been applied to his leg after he was shot.
He said there were 300 shotgun pellets in Mr Fanning's leg and blood splashes near the chair, indicating Mr Fanning had tried to free himself. Dr Harbison had examined the body the day after the shooting.
Mr Fanning died at his farmhouse near Cashel alter he was shot during an incident in which he, his wife and youngest daughter were tied up, the court has heard.
Mrs Brigid Fanning and her daughter, Rosaleen (Rose), have given evidence that they were tied up by a gang of armed and masked men who broke into their home wielding two shotguns and a baseball bat.
The women said that while they were tied together in a bedroom they heard a shot and when they managed to free themselves some time later they found Mr Fanning tied to a chair in the kitchen and apparently dead.
Yesterday was the second day of the trial of two men - Mr Ivor Sweetman (46), from Bawnlea Green, Jobstown, Tallaght, Dublin, and Mr Francis Palmer (26) from Foxborough Road, Lucan, Co Dublin - who have denied the murder of Mr Fanning at his home at Stephenstown, Rosegreen, Cashel, Co Tipperary, on February 6th, 1996.
Both men also have denied having a shotgun with intent to commit robbery at the fan, and having the gun with intent to endanger life, cause serious injury or enable another person to do so.
In court yesterday the Fanning's family doctor, Dr William Ryan, said he was called by the Fannings' youngest daughter, Rose, to go to their home on the night of the shooting. He said Mr Fanning was sitting in an armchair in the kitchen and was dead. He had obviously died as a result of haemorrhage from a gunshot wound in his left leg.
Det Sgt Brendan McArdle of the Ballistics Section of the Garda Technical Bureau said he examined the rooms in the Fanning farmhouse. A few items had been moved, creating what appeared to be a staged search. But he said it appeared to him that a full search for a safe had not taken place.
Legal argument began yesterday afternoon in the absence of the jury members, who earlier were told they would not be required for some days. The trial is expected to resume before the jury early next week.