A car carrying a pregnant woman crashed into the gatepost of a Dublin home after she was shot by a masked gunman, a trial in the Central Criminal Court has heard. The woman's four-year-old daughter was screaming in the back of the car after seeing her mother being shot, witnesses told the court.
Mr Michael Counihan SC, prosecuting, read from a statement by Ballyfermot woman Ms Anita Keane, in which she recalled hearing a loud bang before the car crashed. A woman got out of the car and kept shouting at a man near her to leave the vehicle where it was. A young girl also got out of the car. She had a nose-bleed and was screaming, Ms Keane said.
Mr Paul Rowley (29), of Ballyfermot, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to trying to murder John Alford at Ballyfermot Drive, Dublin on December 11, 1996. He also pleaded not guilty to maliciously intending to cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Alford's girlfriend, Ms Violet Blackburn Power, and to unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.