A WITNESS in a murder trial told gardaí that the accused came to her house, admitted he shot a man and showed her a gun.
Stacey Douglas (23), a stepniece of Jonathan Douglas, said in her initial statement to gardaí, which she made two weeks after the shooting dead of Aidan Byrne, that he told her he had shot someone.
However, in the witness box yesterday on day two of the trial, Ms Douglas retracted her initial statement and said her statement was wrong. She made it because gardaí told her “to tell them what they wanted to hear” so she could go home. She claimed they threatened that her daughter would be taken away.
Mr Douglas (27), O’Devaney Gardens, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Mr Byrne at Drumalee Avenue, Dublin, on February 20th, 2010.
In Ms Douglas’s initial statement, which was read out in court by Gerard Clarke SC, prosecuting, she said Mr Douglas was “wax-colour and pale” when he came banging at her door at about 9pm on the night of the shooting.
“He was hyper and shaking and told me someone called him out of O’Rea’s pub and said he would give him money to shoot a passenger in a car,” her statement said.
“He was ranting on about the shooting and he mentioned someone Byrne. He lifted up his hoodie and I saw a gun tucked into his jeans. It was black and about seven inches long. I told him to get it out of my house. He asked could he wash the gunpowder off him and used salt to wash himself.”
Mr Douglas asked her could he leave the gun in her house. “I wouldn’t let him and he said sorry to me for visiting my place and ran off.”
However, in court yesterday, she told the jury she “went back to the gardaí loads of times” because her statement was wrong. She denies being put under pressure to change her statement and denies being in fear of giving evidence.
The trial continues.