Four students have described in court how they encountered a man with a shotgun after they got lost in the Galway countryside.
Paul O'Shaughnessy (27), from Lackaghmore, Turloughmore, Co Galway, pleaded not guilty to the production of an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute. He also denied the theft of car keys.
Insp Marie Skehill described the experience of four Leaving Certificate students who had set off to visit another classmate 15 miles away after midnight on December 22nd, 2005, as "very frightening".
The driver, Patrick Melia, told Athenry District Court that they realised they were lost while driving along "a mucky boreen" with no houses in sight. A car drove up behind him with three men inside. One of them, Paul O'Shaughnessy, approached the car and demanded to know what they were doing on his private lands, he said. Mr Melia said he explained they were looking for a house in Waterview.
He said Mr O'Shaughnessy became "very erratic". "He said he'd be able to kill us and dump our bodies in the river behind the farm buildings. I was very scared," Mr Melia told the court.
It was alleged that Mr O'Shaughnessy grabbed the keys from the ignition and drove off. The four students followed on foot. "As I continued up the road I heard two shots. I saw smoke," Mr Melia recalled. When they reached a house, his friend, Robert Dunne, rang the doorbell.
"Paul O'Shaughnessy came out with a gun, pointing it in my face. I backed away and put my hands up saying 'take it easy'," Mr Dunne said. He added that the defendant started to shout at Mr Melia. "He said he'd cut his eyes out" and that "he'd take him round the back and shoot him. Paddy continued to ask for the keys", Mr Dunne told the court.
The two men who were with Mr O'Shaughnessy on the night, brothers Shane and Darren Morris, denied their friend had pointed the gun at anybody. Shane Morris told the court that Mr O'Shaughnessy had fired the shotgun from upstairs and when he came down with the gun in his hands had stated: "It might just frighten them off". The four students left when Mr O'Shaughnessy threw the keys in the yard.
In an interview with Garda Mick McCarthy, O'Shaughnessy admitted he fired two shots from a back window and that he had shown the legally held magnum semi-automatic shotgun to the four teenagers. He also admitted removing the keys from their vehicle.
Defence counsel John Jordan said the charges should be dismissed. "It is blatantly clear on the evidence here, that this man, if he did produce a firearm, he did it because there were intruders on his property in the dead of night.
"The law in that regard is clear. A person is entitled to do what is reasonable in terms of protecting their own property. In no stretch of the imagination what this man did could be interpreted as unreasonable."
Judge Joseph Mangan reserved judgment until April 19th.