Men accused of Roy Collins murder seek Garda records

Two Limerick men due to stand trial on a charge of murdering businessman Roy Collins five years ago are seeking recordings of communications between Garda stations and prisons, the Special Criminal Court has heard.

Wayne Dundon (35), Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, and Nathan Killeen (23), Hyde Road, Prospect, are charged with the murder of Mr Collins (35), at Coin Castle Amusements, Roxboro Road Shopping Centre, Limerick, on April 9th, 2009.

They are due to stand trial at the non-jury court on April 29th before Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley.

Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, for Mr Killeen, told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that there were outstanding issues on disclosure.

Among these was a defence request for disclosure of all communications between Garda stations and among prosecution witnesses, some of whom were in prison at the time.

Counsel for the State, Michael O’Higgins, said it was clear that the process of disclosure was becoming increasingly complicated and he proposed that the matter be put back until next week.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said the court could fix next Wednesday for the court constituted to try the case to sit and deal with the matter.

Mr Ó Lideadha said he thought the prosecution was yesterday to give some outline as to the potential sources of relevant information, in particular any issue of recording at Henry Street and Roxboro Road Garda stations in Limerick, and the prisons involved which appeared to have recording systems in place.

Mr Ó Lideadha said the defence wanted to know about communication between gardaí and the prosecution witnesses who were in prison.

Mr O’Higgins told the court that as far as the prison recordings were concerned, it had to be established whether there was a call, roughly when it was made and how long ago it was archived.

He said the prosecution did know the archive was in Longford but had not established a procedure for organising access to it and the process was “not something that can immediately be done”.

Mr Justice Butler said it was preferable for the court constituted to try the case to deal with the issue. He adjourned the matter until Wednesday next.