A 29 year-old Kerry man has told a murder trial jury that to suggest he pre-planned and actively participated in his uncle's killing was "hocus pocus, fiction" and "like something from the world of Peter Pan".
Eugene Daly (29) was giving evidence in his own defence at the Central Criminal Court yesterday. Mr Daly, of Doneen, Kilcummin, Killarney has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his uncle Mr Patrick (Paddy) Daly at Doneen on January 18th, 1996.
The court has already heard that Mr Daly told gardaí his father Seán, who is now deceased, hit his uncle Paddy with an iron bar and that he disposed of his uncle's body in a well on the family farm following a row over money and land.
Prior to his direct evidence, his lawyer Mr Brendan Grehan SC told the jury that while there is no issue about the circumstances of Mr Paddy Daly's death, the accused is guilty only of being "an accessory after the fact".
In his evidence Mr Eugene Daly repeatedly said that he "wanted to be a tough guy" and compared his uncle's killing to a scene from a war movie, a western or a thriller including 'Goodfellas', 'The Godfather' or 'Twin Peaks'. He began by telling the jury that for many years he "used to retreat into a fantasy world of detectives, police and cowboy movies".
He then told Mr Grehan that he had purposely implicated himself in his uncle's killing after his father's arrest so that he'd get "busted". "I was very close to my father and I couldn't leave him suffer in jail alone," he said. "So I started to implicate myself in these matters so I'd get busted with him."
When asked why he told gardaí that his uncle's killing had been premeditated by him and his father, he said, "That was just copying the tough guys, like in Taggart". The case will close today before Mr Justice Henry Abbott begins his charge to the jury.