Court told Phelan shot man in head as he turned to leave

A law lecturer, barrister and farmer, shot a trespasser on his land in the back of his head as the other man had turned away to leave, the Central Criminal Court has been told.

The prosecution claims that 56-year-old Diarmuid Phelan pointed his gun in the direction of 35-year-old Keith Conlon and shot him in the head at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght in Dublin on 22 February 2022, and that Mr Phelan intended to kill or cause serious injury.

Mr Phelan has pleaded not guilty.

A jury of three women and nine men heard that Mr Phelan will claim that he fired his revolver as an act of self-defence and that he had no intent to shoot Mr Conlon.

The court heard the defence case will be that Mr Conlon was shot accidentally due to a combination of factors including the inaccuracy of the weapon, fear and stress and the movement of the deceased man.

Prosecuting counsel Róisin Lacey outlined the State's case to the jury this afternoon.

She said that on 22 February 2022, Mr Phelan was working on his farm with four farmhands from France and Germany, who were working on the farm in exchange for board and lodging.

The farm was formerly a golf club and there were bunkers and green areas on the land.

Ms Lacey said Mr Phelan and the workers heard a dog barking a number of times during the morning.

At around 1pm, he went towards a wooded area where he had heard the barking, taking with him a rifle.

She said there were three men in the wooded area. Mr Conlon, who was also known as Keith Green or "Bono", lived nearby. He was accompanied by two others - Callum Coleman and Robin Duggan.

Ms Lacey said the three were trespassers who had no permission to be on Ms Phelan’s land. They were engaged in fox bolting - hunting foxes with a dog.

The prosecution case is that Mr Phelan shot the dog without giving any warning.

Ms Lacey said Mr Conlon and Mr Coleman saw Mr Phelan and one of the farmhands and noted Mr Phelan was carrying a rifle.

There was a very heated exchange, Ms Lacey said, and she told the jurors Mr Conlon had taken a short video on his mobile phone which they would see during the trial.

Mr Phelan and the farmhand retreated back up to an open area which had previously been a green on the golf course, she said, where the other farmhands were working.

Mr Conlon and Mr Coleman followed them a short time later. She said there was shouting going on about gardaí being called and having Mr Phelan charged in relation to the killing of the dog.

Mr Phelan asked one of the farmhands to call gardaí and Mr Conlon also said he would call gardaí.

Ms Lacey said Mr Phelan was shouting at the other men to go, keep their distance and get back.

Mr Conlon and Mr Coleman approached, she said, and Mr Phelan walked towards them.

She said Mr Phelan took a revolver out of the pocket of his jacket and she told them they would hear three shots were fired quickly from this gun.

The first two shots were fired into the air, but the third shot connected with Mr Conlon, she said. Neither Mr Coleman nor Mr Conlon had weapons with them, Ms Lacey added.

She said the prosecution case was that Mr Conlon had turned away from the accused man at the time he was shot. She said he was shot in the back of the head and fell to the ground into what was previously an old bunker.

She said emergency services were called.

Mr Phelan used a motorised buggy to go to the main gate to tell workmen to leave the gate open for the ambulance and then drove back to his house where he got a first aid kit and returned to the scene.

Mr Conlon was brought to Tallaght Hospital where he was placed on life support. He was declared dead two days later.

Ms Lacey said the jury would hear that he died from a single gunshot to the back of head.

Mr Phelan was arrested at the scene.

In interviews, Ms Lacey said he denied murder.

He told gardaí there had been previous incidents on the land, and there had been trespassers with dogs. He had put up fences but they had been broken down and he was concerned about lambing ewes at the other end of the farm.

Mr Phelan told gardaí that when he heard the dog barking, he had called out twice to see if anyone was there but had got no reply.

After he saw the dog and shot it, he said three men "exploded" from the bushes "roaring and shouting" about shooting the dog and "getting him".

He said he perceived what they were saying as threats. And he said he was shaking as he was "clambering and stumbling" back up a bank. He got the other farm workers to call gardaí and he said he then saw two men coming towards him.

He said he told them to stay back but they kept coming. He said they were saying stuff about the dog and were coming to fulfil the threats the had made.

Mr Phelan said he had walked back towards them, reached for his revolver and shot in the air left to right, over the men’s heads. He told gardaí he was "stunned" when one man went down.

He said he had a mix of ammunition in the revolver, which he used to control vermin. He thought the first three shots in the gun were bird shot, but he said he must have been wrong.

Mr Phelan told gardaí that if he had not reacted immediately, the other man would have got him. Ms Lacey said he repeatedly told the gardaí he was "terrified, stressed, and scared sh*tless" but he said he was not angry and had not lost his temper.

Mr Lacey said the defence position, as she understood it, was that Mr Phelan was entitled to discharge the gun as he did in a legitimate act of self defence.

She told the jurors the defence position was that the weapon was fired without intent to cause the bullet to penetrate Mr Conlon’s body. T

he defence claimed this was unintended and happened accidentally due to a combination of factors - the inaccuracy of the weapon, repeated firing, the light weight of the weapon and the heavy trigger pull, a combination of fear and stress and the movement of the deceased.

But she said the State’s case was that when Mr Phelan fired the third shot, the gun was pointed in the direction of Mr Conlon and that Mr Conlon was shot in the back of the head as he had turned away from Mr Phelan to leave.

She said it was the prosecution case that Mr Phelan intended to kill or cause serious injury.

The jury has begun to hear evidence from a garda mapping expert which will continue tomorrow morning.

The trial is expected to last around six weeks.