A man who denies murder said he shot his victim twice because he thought he had been involved in a hit-and-run in which his brother was struck, a Central Criminal Court jury heard yesterday.
Andrew Wall (22), of St Patrick's, Fortunestown Lane, Jobstown, Tallaght pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to the murder of Mr John McCarthy (35) at a halting site at Fortunestown Lane, off Brookfield Road in Tallaght, on July 15th, 1996.
Wall also admitted having a .22 sawn-off rifle and ammunition without lawful purpose at the time of the incident. But he denied having the rifle and ammunition with intent to endanger life on the same date.
Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, opening the case for the prosecution, told the jury of eight women and four men that the only issue was whether the accused intended to kill Mr McCarthy or not.
Mr Michael McDowell SC, for Wall, said his client formally admitted firing two shots at Mr McCarthy with a sawn-off .22 shotgun in a caravan at Fortunestown Lane halting site in the early hours of July 15th, 1996. He also agreed that he had made a voluntary statement about it to gardai on July 20th, 1996.
The jury heard that before midnight on July 14th, a brother of Wall was struck by a car as he stood on a pavement outside Jobstown Community Centre. In his statement to gardai, Wall said that at the scene of the accident "everybody said the McCarthys did it."
The 12-year-old son of the deceased, John McCarthy junior, told the court his grandfather had died three days prior to his father's death. As is the tradition in the travelling community, his grandfather's caravan was burned.
His father did not drive a car, he said, but had a horse and cart. Just after midnight on July 15th, his father was in the caravan of his sister. John junior remembered a car driving slowly into the halting site. He and his uncle went up to it.
There were "four or five men" inside, including the accused. All were wearing red plastic gloves "used for tarmacking".
He said he saw Andy Wall loading the gun in the car. His father approached it and he heard Andy Wall say, "Who does he think he is?"
His father saw the gun and ran back towards the caravan, with the accused following him.
"I ran up after them," John Junior said, "and I was telling Andy there to stop and the other one hit me a box in the face because I was trying to stop him."
The dead man's three nieces also gave evidence that they had been in the caravan when their uncle ran into it, pursued by Wall.
Ms Helen McCarthy described seeing four men get out of a car which pulled in to the site. She said Wall came after her uncle with a gun in his hand and fired two shots at him in the caravan. She had known Wall for "around two years," she said.
Ms Ann McCarthy said that when he came into the caravan Wall had hit her mother across the back with his gun and shot her uncle in the back as he was standing. She said she saw him load the gun outside the caravan "near the door".
Ms Brigid McCarthy said her mother had tried to stop Wall coming into the caravan but "he shoved her out of the way and hit her across the back with the gun."
She told Mr McDowell that her uncle had tripped after he came back into the caravan, and that as far as she could remember he was shot as he lay on the ground.
Before coming into the caravan, she said, Wall let off a shot outside.
"Would it be fair to say that as he was approaching the caravan and letting off a shot into the air he was behaving like a wild man?" Mr McDowell asked.
"Yes", she replied.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice O'Higgins and a jury.