There was “extremely strong” supporting evidence that a man who was acquitted by the direction of a trial judge was the shooter who tried to murder a Dublin teenager, the State has argued before the Court of Appeal.
In reference to evidence that gloves seized from the man less than 30 minutes after the shooting contained matching firearms residue, State counsel Eilis Brennan SC said: “We don’t live in Detroit where there are regular drive-bys”. “It was 11.20pm; was he going pheasant shooting?” she asked.
In March at the Central Criminal Court, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon directed a jury to find two men not guilty of the attempted murder of a teenager on Dublin’s southside in 2021.
At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Ms Brennan said the three hours of CCTV tracking the movements of two cars before, during and after the shooting were “key” to the prosecution evidence in what was a circumstantial case. Ms Brennan said that at the original trial the playing of the CCTV took place over four days with the assistance of a Garda CCTV expert.
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Ms Brennan has submitted maps and CCTV footage of a Hyundai hatchback the State submits was used in the shooting and of a BMW with “customised” alloy wheels, which the State claims is a getaway vehicle used by three men. This car was separately stopped on the M50 around 25 minutes after the shooting.
On Friday, Court of Appeal president Mr Justice George Birmingham said that he had looked at the CCTV footage of the cars’ movements on the date but was “not able to identify the alloy wheels or other features” highlighted by the prosecution, including the registration number of the Hyundai hatchback.
Ms Brennan said a black Hyundai hatchback left the scene of the shooting “at speed” at around 10.55pm, which was caught on CCTV. In addition, she said eye-witnesses saw the doors of the parked hatchback to be open when parked and that two men had jumped into the car.
Ms Brennan said the car drove to the nearby Sandford Gardens-Greenville Avenue area, where it was set on fire “minutes later”. Persons were then seen on CCTV running towards a parked black BMW saloon which drove off.
Counsel said that a pistol recovered from the burning hatchback was a forensic match for the gun that discharged the shots fired at the crime scene.
Ms Brennan said the BMW was picked up on CCTV at Walkinstown roundabout and was then stopped at the M50 between the Finglas and Blanchardstown turn-offs.
Counsel said the BMW was stopped by gardaí and three men, including the two acquitted men, were acting in an “extremely suspicious, extremely nervous” manner. The three men were searched for drugs and firearms and gave “no comment” answers when interviewed. No firearms or drugs were found by gardaí.
However, a pair of gardening gloves were seized from the younger respondent and were found to contain firearm particle residue matching the particles discharged at the scene.
“We don’t live in Detroit where there are regular drive-bys,” said Ms Brennan. “It was 11.20pm; was he [the younger man] going duck shooting? Pheasant shooting?” she said.
Ms Brennan said that there were “19 characteristic particles” on the gloves that were “common to those found in the shooting”. She said there was “extremely strong support that he [the younger man] was the shooter”.
Hugh Hartnett SC, for the younger man, said there had been no CCTV of the black saloon car between Walkinstown roundabout and when it was captured when stopped on the M50. Mr Hartnett said there had been “significant gaps” in the CCTV evidence and that “the car of interest had not been seen going on to the M50″.
Mr Justice Birmingham, sitting with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Tara Burns, said the three judges would review the CCTV footage in conjunction with relevant transcripts from the case and that the court would reserve its judgement in the matter.
The State has submitted that the trial judge erred in her ruling to direct the acquittals because she had considered individual pieces of evidence “in isolation” in making her assessments, rather than considering their “global”, overall consequences.
Ms Brennan has told the three-judge appellate court that the trial judge had enough evidence for the case to go before a jury and that she had, in directing the acquittal, assumed the role of the jury, rather than that of a judge, in considering the evidence to be so weak against the two men.
In March, Ms Justice Creedon ruled on an application from the defence to drop the charges against both men, who had been accused of the attempted murder of the then 17-year-old boy at a residential estate in southside Dublin at around 10.55pm on the night of February 24th 2021.
The men, aged 32 and 28, had both been accused of the attempted murder of the teenager at Eugene Street, Dublin 8, and of possession of a firearm, a Beretta pistol, with intent to endanger life on that date.
The younger man had also been accused of criminal damage to a home on Eugene Street on the same night, where a bullet passed through the front door, an internal wall and smashed through the glass of an oven cooker.
Both men had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The teenager gave evidence during the trial that he could not remember any events on the day in question before or after his shooting and that he was on medication at the time.
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