A MAN fired shots over his twin brother’s head and continued firing from the upstairs windows of his home during a 21-hour siege in the town nearly three years ago,
the trial of a 42-year-old man from Gort, in Co Galway heard yesterday.
The siege ended when he walked out the front door, armed with a shotgun, and took up a firing position at gardaí before being shot in the shoulder by a Garda marksman.
Galway Circuit Criminal Court heard that Anthony Burke, Crowe Street, had a domestic dispute with his partner, Margaret Corless on Sunday evening, October 8th, 2006.
He began firing shots from a legally-held shotgun inside the house, hitting the front door, a dart board, a large stuffed cock pheasant and the bannisters.
Ms Corless escaped with her 7-year-old son and a baby in her arms out the front door of the house, while her 14-year-old daughter escaped through the back door.
The accused man is charged with three counts involving the unlawful possession of two shotguns and 1,400 shotgun cartridges with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property. He pleaded guilty to having the shotguns and ammunition with intent to injure property but pleaded not guilty to having the firearms with intent to endanger life.
Mr Burke has pleaded guilty to the reckless discharge of a shotgun and to six other charges relating to the unlawful possession of 1,440 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun cartridges without a firearms certificate and to damaging two Garda cars and two privately owned cars in Gort on October 9th and again on October 10th, 2006. The trial continues today.