A jury has retired to consider verdicts in the trial of a man accused of drugs charges and of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to a Det Gda serving in Limerick city.
Kieran “Bunny” Barry (51), with an address at Galvone Road, Kennedy Park, Limerick, denies threatening to kill or harm seriously garda Dean Landers, on May 3rd, 2019.
Mr Barry also denies charges of possession of cannabis for sale or supply, possession of cannabis, and of resisting Det Gda Landers in executing his lawful duties, on the same date.
Following a three-day trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, a jury of eight women and four men retired Tuesday to deliberate on its verdicts.
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Det Gda Landers gave evidence that he was concerned for himself and his family after Mr Barry allegedly threatened to kill him, his children and his mother.
“I was worried, I’ve been in Limerick 13 years and a Garda for 15 years, but, [Mr Barry] looked me in the eyes and told me he was going to murder me, and I 100 per cent believed him,” he said.
Det Gda Landers and a colleague had responded to a call of a disturbance outside Mr Barry’s home on the night in question. Mr Barry became abusive and asked the garda to a fight, the court heard.
“He [Mr Barry] told me he was going to murder me, and that the next time he caught me on my own, he was going to slash my head off. He said he would bury me somewhere where no one would find me,” Det Gda Landers alleged.
“He continued getting enraged, gesturing and pointing towards me, and he told me, ‘I know where you live, you lanky pr*ck’. He got more aggressive and agitated.”
“He was clenching his fists and he told me he was going to give me a slow death and that he would give my kids an even slower one.”
“He said that once he was finished with me, he was going to call to my mother and he was going to f**k her and strangle her.”
“While he was doing this he had his two hands out in a strangling motion and he was gyrating his hips, he was acting out what he was going to or threatening to do.”
“After that, he told me to look him straight into his eyes, and he said, ‘Look at me, I am going to murder you’,” said Det Gda Landers.
When more gardaí arrived at the scene, Mr Barry ran into his home, locked the front door, and fled through the rear of the property, Det Gda Landers said.
Later on that night, gardaí observed Mr Barry sitting on a couch in the front livingroom of his home and they entered the property and arrested him.
Det Gda Landers alleged that when he entered the front room Mr Barry “ran straight at me, and again he said, ‘I’m going to f**king kill you’.”
Det Gda Landers said he identified himself as “armed gardaí” and he gave Mr Barry “a short burst” of pepper spray into his eyes to “incapacitate” him.
Det Gda Landers said he observed “small plastic baggie vacuum bags, and a small quantity of cannabis herb on the couch where Mr Barry had been sitting” and that these items were seized as part of the garda investigation.
The garda told the court he was “in shock” at Mr Barry’s threats which he found to be “disturbing”.
“He [Mr Barry] gave me concern as well that he seemed to know an awful lot about my personal life in relation to me having kids, and then he told me he knew where I lived.”
Det Gda Landers said it took a number of gardaí to restrain Mr Barry when the pepper spray “didn’t really take full effect”. However, the garda disagreed with suggestions by Mr Barry’s barristers, senior counsel Andrew Sexton and Amy Nix, that gardaí had “beaten” and “dragged” Mr Barry out of his house while he was being arrested.
Mr Barry, who admitted being intoxicated on the night, told gardaí, following his arrest, that he “had words” with Det Gda Landers.
Mr Barry acknowledged that he had asked Det Gda Landers to a fight on the night, but he denied making threats against him and his family, and he described the allegations as “b****x” and “a trumped up crock of s***e”.
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