THE FIANCEE of a man who was shot dead while he slept in bed beside her pointed at the man accused of his murder yesterday and identified him as the assailant.
Nicole Lennon (21), the fiancee of Darren McGrath (33) and mother of his child, became upset as she told the Central Criminal Court she had awoken to find a gunman in her bedroom and had seen him fatally shoot Mr McGrath as he slept beside her.
Trevor McCabe (35), Mountpleasant, Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr McGrath in Belturbet, Co Cavan, on May 20th, 2008.
When asked by Anthony Sammon SC, prosecuting, if the man who had shot Mr McGrath was in court, Ms Lennon nodded and pointed at Mr McCabe. “It was him. I don’t want to look at him, but it was him.”
Ms Lennon had lived with Mr McGrath and their then 18-month- old daughter at their home in Belturbet for two years before the killing.
On the night of the shooting, she had put her daughter to bed before going to bed herself. Mr McGrath joined her at about 10.30pm and they watched a DVD before going to sleep. His brother, Adam McGrath, and his two friends were also staying in the house that night.
Ms Lennon said early the next morning she was awoken by “a presence in the room”. The man’s face was partially concealed by a mask and he was carrying a double-barrelled shotgun. Ms Lennon said that after the first shot was fired, “Darren’s arm went up as if he was still alive. He leaned over me to get closer to Darren’s head to make sure he was dead.”
The court heard the assailant was wearing a mask covering his face from the nose down but his eyes and head were clearly visible.
After the assailant had left, Ms Lennon jumped out of the bed screaming: “He is dead. Trevor McCabe is after killing him.”
The court heard she had known Mr McCabe for about two years before the alleged murder. Mr McCabe had visited her in hospital after the birth of her daughter and had attended the child’s christening.
One month before the shooting, Mr McCabe and his girlfriend had visited Mr McGrath at his home.
Ms Lennon told Mr Sammon she was “familiar” with Mr McCabe.
“He wasn’t my friend, he was Darren’s friend,” she said.
In cross-examination, Ms Lennon told Peter Finlay SC, defending, that she could not remember the exact colour of the trousers the assailant was wearing. “I wasn’t concentrating on clothes, my fiance was getting shot dead.”
She told Mr Finlay she did not know of any enemies he may have had nor did she know why Mr McCabe would have shot him.
Andrea Murphy, who lived next door, told the court she heard a loud bang in the early hours. “I heard a really loud bang and I jumped out of bed to check on my youngest daughter to see if she had fallen out of her cot.”
When she returned to her room she heard a second bang and “hysterical screaming” coming from next door. Ms Murphy ran next door and saw Ms Lennon in the landing with Adam McGrath.
She said: “Nicole kept screaming, ‘Darren’s shot, Darren’s shot. Trevor shot him’.”
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury.