A 19-year-old Limerick defendant pleaded not guilty to the murder of a man who was described as a moneylender and "a man to be feared" in the Central Criminal Court yesterday. Mr Noel Kelly is accused of the murder of Mr John Keane (26) at the house he shared with him at O'Malley Park, Southill, Limerick, on July 5th last year.
Mr Kelly also pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Keane with intent to murder and to possession of a single-barrel sawn-off shotgun with intent to endanger life. Opening the prosecution case, Mr Patrick Gageby SC told the jury that it was the State's case that Mr Kelly and another man awaiting trial decided that they would kill Mr Keane.
On the night in question, they donned balaclavas and dark clothing, and carrying two shotguns they went to the house of Mr Keane. Mr Kelly had earlier arranged with Mr Keane that the front door be left off the latch. They found Mr Keane in bed.
"They blasted him, chased him out of the house, blasted him again and then one of them battered him severely on the head and face with a shotgun." The battering was so bad, said Mr Gageby, that the wooden butt of the gun - its stock - fell off.
The attack happened at about 3 a.m., the court was told. Mr Keane died soon afterwards.
Mr Kelly "was at the forefront of this enterprise". It might seem, Mr Gageby said, that because he lived with the deceased man, Mr Kelly was his friend. However, the jury would be satisfied that Noel Kelly "had conceived a great hatred of John Keane".
Mr Gageby told the court that the dead man, who was nicknamed Caino, "had in fact been a man to be feared". "He was known to be a moneylender, was probably dealing in some form of drugs and it is also clear that he was a bully." However, there should be nothing to suggest from these facts that society was better off without him.
Garda witnesses told the court that Mr Keane's house had been barricaded front and back. The front was fortified with metal shutters and the front door was secured with metal sheeting on the inside and a metal crossbar.
Mr Denis Keane, a brother of the dead man, gave evidence that he lived next door to his brother's house. He said he had been dozing on the night of the killing when he heard three bangs which he believed to be gun blasts.
"I told my wife to get out the back window," Mr Keane said. He then looked out his front window and saw one man beating something up and down on his brother's head. Another man stood behind him, looking on. He could not identify the man who was beating his brother as he was bent down, he said.
Mr Keane agreed with Mr Michael McMahon SC, defending, that there had been a number of incidents of shotguns being discharged into doors and windows under cover of darkness in the O'Malley Park area over the previous year. He agreed that arguments between different families would lead to shotguns being discharged in this way.
He said his brother "probably sold a bit of drugs" - "a small bit, like".
He said he kept a three-foot-long cleaver in his own house for protection. "When you're living in O'Malley Park, everyone keeps something," he said.
The trial continues today.