Two young children in Dublin witnessed the fatal shooting of their father as they lay in bed beside him after a masked gunman forced entry to their home, an inquest has heard.
Michael Scott (25), Sillogue Road, Ballymun, died after he received a single shotgun injury to the chest in April 2003.
Dublin City Coroner's Court heard yesterday that a gunman and a man brandishing a knife forced entry into Mr Scott's house.
Antoinette Caffrey told the court that her partner was in bed with their children Leroy (3) and Dean (6) at about 3am when she heard a loud bang. Two men in balaclavas entered their apartment.
Ms Caffrey met them in the hallway and tried to stop them from going into the bedroom where her partner and two children slept. "One of them was holding a gun and pointed it at me . . . They went down the hallway. My two kids were screaming and Michael was lying at the side of the bed half asleep . . . The look on my kids' faces were terrible."
Ms Caffrey then witnessed the shooting of her partner as she stood in the bedroom doorway. The two intruders left the apartment immediately, she said. Ms Caffrey then "went over to Michael and put my arms around him" before calling gardaí and an ambulance. She described the knife held by one of the intruders as similar to a sword.
Det Sgt Michael Murphy told the inquest that a file in relation to the death was sent to the DPP but criminal proceedings were discontinued when a man who was to be charged in relation to the murder was killed in a road crash.
Det Sgt Murphy said the fatal shooting was linked to two violent incidents the day before when a Finglas man assaulted his ex-girlfriend. Later that day, Mr Scott and a relative of the assaulted woman went to the man's house in Fairlawn Road, Finglas, and attacked him. The two men did "relatively serious injuries" to the man with a hammer and a knife, he said.
Yesterday's jury returned a verdict of death by unlawful killing by person(s) unknown.
Mr Scott's family described him as a caring father and loving person. "It was a horrible, horrible thing to happen. He loved his kids and was a good father . . . He had a lot of love in his heart," a family member told the court.