Witness lunges at accused in pigeon-racing club murder trial

A witness was held back by prison officers after he lunged at a murder accused in court.

Jason O’Connor was due to give evidence on Tuesday in the Central Criminal Court trial of Christopher McDonald (34), from the East Wall area of Dublin.

Mr McDonald has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 36-year-old Keith Walker at Blanchardstown Pigeon Racing Club on Friday, June 12th, 2015.

Having been called to give evidence, Mr O’Connor walked behind the accused before lunging at him. Four prison officers and a garda then intervened.

Judge Patrick McCarthy told Mr O’Connor that he had powers to deal with people who were not prepared to act in a “civilised manner”.

The jury was then asked to leave the court for some minutes.

When they returned, the judge told them that they must decide the case based on the evidence they hear and that the accused man enjoys a presumption of innocence.

He described the witness’s behaviour as “disgraceful” and added that it should not impact on the jury in any way.

Another witness, Stuart Kane, told Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, for the prosecution, that he was in the car park of the pigeon-racing club that Friday afternoon, chatting with other members as they prepared for the weekend’s racing.

He said he remembered walking to his car to get a can of Coke and as he walked back he heard someone shout: “Hit man, hit man.”

He said a person wearing women’s clothes and black sunglasses came up, pulled out what the witness believed to be a sub-machine gun and started firing.

“We all tried to turn and run . . . and then the poor man got it,” he said.

He saw Mr Walker fall to the ground as the person with the gun walked backwards and out the gateway through which he had entered.

CCTV footage

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Vaughan Buckley opened the trial by telling the jury that they will see CCTV footage of the fatal shooting.

Mr Buckley said that, on the date in question, Mr Walker left his home in Clondalkin with his six-year-old son and travelled to Whitestown, Blanchardstown, to meet up with Jason O’Connor, a fellow pigeon-racing enthusiast.

He arrived at 5pm, had a cup of tea with Mr O’Connor, and they discussed races that were due to take place that weekend.

After this, they put pigeons into carrier baskets and loaded them into a car belonging to Mr O’Connor’s partner.

Mr Walker then drove the car to the pigeon-racing club on Shelerin Road in Clonsilla.

Mr Vaughan Buckley said CCTV will show Mr Walker talking to other members of the club at about 6pm when a male dressed as a woman, wearing a long black-haired wig, black leggings, dark sunglasses and carrying a handbag, entered the car park.

He said the man approached Mr Walker, removed a firearm from his handbag and discharged it multiple times, leaving Mr Walker fatally wounded.

Mr Vaughan Buckley said subsequent CCTV footage from a Lidl in Blanchardstown would show a person without a wig but otherwise dressed the same as the shooter.

The jury also heard that a postmortem by Prof Marie Cassidy will show that the deceased suffered 18 gunshot wounds. He suffered bullet wounds to his head, body and left leg.

Mr Vaughan Buckley said gardaí later found a sub-machine gun, which a forensic analyst will say is likely to have been the one used to kill Mr Walker.

He added that, in the early hours of June 13th, a senior investigating officer went to a premises in Ratoath, Co Meath, with a search warrant.

When the officer arrived, he found the accused, who was wearing makeup and had a cut over his eye.

Mr Vaughan Buckley said the garda will say that when arrested and cautioned Mr McDonald responded: “Go fuck yourself.”

The trial continues in front of Judge Patrick McCarthy and a jury of six men and six women.