Witnesses in the trial of two men who are accused of firing shots into a crowd have told a jury at the Central Criminal Court that they were threatened into retracting their identification of the men who shot them.
Martin McDonagh, Kathleen McDonagh and Patrick Quinn told the court they swore affidavits to say they had falsely identified Michael Reilly and Paul Gavin but only did so because they were threatened.
Mr Reilly (37), Glen Road Height, Belfast, and Mr Gavin (33), also Glen Road Height, deny attempting to murder Paul Collins, Mr and Mrs McDonagh and Mr Quinn at Cara Close, Coolock in Dublin in February 2005.
Mr Quinn and Mr McDonagh received gunshot wounds to the back while Mrs McDonagh and Mr Collins were shot in the face.
Mr McDonagh told Brendan Nix SC, defending, that he had gone to the offices of Michael Staines solicitors with his wife and the other two victims to retract their identifications but they only did this because they were threatened.
"We were getting threatening phone calls about what they would do to the children coming out of school." He said the four witnesses met the two accused in Coolock and agreed to go to the solicitors.
Mrs McDonagh told John Phelan SC, defending, that they met a member of the Gavin family. "He just says our Paul is not willing to do jail for you or any of the Quinns and somebody's going to be hurted."
The trial continues next week.