THE SHANE Geoghegan murder trial has heard that the apparent intended target lived four doors away from the rugby player on the night he was shot in a case of mistaken identity.
Mr Geoghegan (28), who played rugby with Garryowen, was shot on November 9th, 2008, near his home at Clonmore, Kilteragh, Dooradoyle, Limerick.
Barry Doyle (26), a father of three, Portland Row, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to his murder at his trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Garda Daniel Murphy of Roxboro Road Garda station yesterday told the jury that he knew a man called John McNamara, known locally as Johnny Mac.
He said he was aware that this Mr McNamara lived “four doors up from Shane Geoghegan” at the time of the murder and had done so since 2006.
He pointed out Mr McNamara’s house on photographs and maps for the jury, which heard from a previous witness that Mr McNamara was the intended target that night.
April Collins testified last week that the night before the murder, she heard John Dundon tell Mr Doyle to shoot Mr McNamara.
“John Dundon was saying he’d everything sussed out about John McNamara and that it was time to make the move,” she said.
“I’ve the gun and car ready and everything ready to go,” Dundon said, she testified. She said he told Mr Doyle what Mr McNamara looked like.
“The gun is there, you kill him,” he told Mr Doyle, she said.
She later met Dundon and Mr Doyle. “John was saying John McNamara was dead.” Dundon then spoke to someone on the phone, she continued.
“Then he asked Barry Doyle to describe the man he killed and Barry described him. He said he was big, the way John described him.”
Garda Murphy yesterday agreed with Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, that Mr Doyle was in the company of Dundon in Limerick on the afternoon of October 29th, 2008.
He agreed that Mr Doyle was also seen with Dundon in a car in Limerick on two other dates that October. Mr O’Connell said that this information was accepted by the defence.
The trial continues this morning before Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and a jury.