A man accused of murder "viciously beat" his victim and stabbed him in both arms before he was shot in the head at close range, a jury in the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mr Joseph Delaney (54), formerly of La Rochelle, Naas, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mark Dwyer (23) on or about December 14th, 1996. He has also pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr Dwyer and detaining him against his will at Foster Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin, on the same date.
Outlining the prosecution's case, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC said witnesses would give "overwhelming" evidence to support the contention that Mr Delaney had "orchestrated and executed" Mr Dwyer's murder "or that it had been done at his behest".
Mr Vaughan Buckley told the jury Mr Dwyer had been killed in revenge for the misappropriation of 30-40,000 ecstasy tablets. The defendant believed Mr Dwyer was responsible for the missing tablets, counsel said.
He said Mr Dwyer had been abducted from his flat by three armed and masked men. He was driven to the defendant's home in Kildare where he was tortured and beaten before being shot.
Mr Vaughan Buckley said the defendant's son, Scott Delaney, who was previously convicted of Mr Dwyer's murder, would give evidence against his father. Counsel said Scott Delaney would state he was party to setting up Mr Dwyer but that he did so at his father's direction.
He said the jury would hear him say that during a meeting the defendant had called, his father had "freaked out" and had walked around his home with a baseball bat, saying he would "batter" whoever had taken the drugs.
Giving evidence, the deceased's then girlfriend, Ms Jennifer Byrne, then of Fosters Terrace, Ballybough, told the court how three armed and masked men burst into her flat and abducted Mr Dwyer.
She described how Mark Dwyer was tied and a pillowcase put over his head, she said. Mr Dwyer asked "What's this all about?" and he was told he had messed up, she said. An armed man held a knife to her throat and asked her what a scanner was. After replying that she did not know, the man said it enabled him to know if she had called the Garda. If anyone did so, he said Mr Dwyer would "get it". Ms Byrne told the court that her boyfriend had no "marks" on him before his abduction, but that when she later identified him in the morgue, he was marked.
She had waited in the flat for hours after the men had left with Mr Dwyer and his friend, Scott Delaney. She was "terrified".
Prosecution counsel asked her if Mr Dwyer believed there was "any chance of him being shot". She said: "Yeah, he said there is a chance I'm going to be shot."
The case continues today.