A woman told a murder trial jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday of the last moment she saw her boyfriend alive as he was dragged by a gang at gunpoint, hooded and bound, from their flat. Ms Jennifer Byrne described how three masked men, one armed with a shotgun, burst into the flat in Dublin in the early hours of the morning and ordered everyone on to the floor.
She said her boyfriend, Mr Mark Dwyer, was forced to lie face down on the ground and one of the gang began kicking him. They said they wanted to have a talk with him and they would have him back in the morning. That morning, she went to the city morgue to identify his body.
The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, told the court that Mr Dwyer died from a laceration to the brain due to a single shotgun wound in the back of the head discharged at virtual contact range.
He said the victim had received a " severe punishment beating before his death". He had been stabbed in the arms and also been threatened with a shotgun. There were muzzle imprints over his heart.
It was the second day of the trial of Mr Scott Delaney (22), of Palmerstown Park, Palmerstown, Dublin. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Dwyer (22), of Foster Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin, on December 14th, 1996.
Mr Delaney has also denied falsely imprisoning him on that date at Foster Terrace. The body of Mr Dwyer was found in a field at Scribblestown, Finglas, early that morning after a call to the Garda.
In evidence yesterday, Ms Byrne, replying to Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for the prosecution, said she was in the flat with her boyfriend and a number of other people, including the accused, Mr Delaney.
She said Mr Delaney used a mobile phone about 20 minutes before three men arrived at the flat.
Ms Byrne said that after Mr Delaney came back in they were all sitting around when there was a bang and she turned around and looked over at the door.
"There was a man standing there with a gun. He was followed by two other men. He told everyone to get down on the floor. Myself and Mark got down on the floor in front of the sofa."
Ms Byrne said that when the three men first came into the flat they spoke with Northern accents, but after a while they dropped the accents and one of the men spoke with a strong inner-city Dublin accent.
She said the gang took wire from the TV and video and used it to tie Mr Dwyer's ankles and wrists. They also put a pillow case over his head and wrapped wire around his neck. All the men wore black balaclavas and one had a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun. She said that the accused was on the bed during this and the men did not do anything to him. Then Mr Dwyer was lifted off the ground by the wire around his neck and taken out and that was the last time she saw him alive.
Cross-examined by defence counsel, Mr Brendan Grogan SC, Ms Byrne agreed that she had told gardai that the man with the sawn-off shotgun had pointed it at Mr Delaney and had told him not to move.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Morris and a jury.