A young farmworker has told the Central Criminal Court she felt “terror” when she saw a man fall to the ground after being shot on a law professor’s farm in Co Dublin.
Hannah Felgner, a medical student who had arrived in Ireland just two days earlier to work on Diarmuid Phelan’s farm, said: “I doubt I will ever find the words to describe the terror, there was a lot of fear.”
Ms Felgner made one of three 999 calls to the emergency services on the day Keith Conlon was shot, the court heard on the third day of the trial of Mr Phelan.
A senior counsel and law professor, Mr Phelan (56) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Keith Conlon at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Co Dublin on February 24th, 2022. Mr Conlon was one of three trespassers fox hunting on the farm on February 22nd, 2022.
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The prosecution contends Mr Phelan shot a dog belonging to one trespasser, Kallum Coleman; heated exchanges with the trespassers followed; Mr Phelan later fired two shots into the air from his revolver; and a third shot penetrated Mr Conlon’s body. He was critically injured and pronounced dead two days later.
Mr Phelan, the prosecution contends, had the requisite intent for murder.
The jury has heard Mr Phelan told gardaí he believed, if he had not reacted immediately, “he would have got me” and he was “terrified”. The prosecution has said it understands the defence case as being Mr Phelan was entitled to discharge his firearm as he did and it was a legitimate act of self-defence not done with intent to penetrate the body of Mr Conlon.
In evidence on Friday, Ms Felgner (21) said sometime after hearing a dog bark in the distance on February 22nd, 2022, she saw Mr Phelan, who had a gun, go with his own dog and another farm hand into bushes on the farm.
She later heard a gunshot and screaming and yelling after which she saw Mr Phelan, the dog and farm hand come out of the bushes and walk towards where she was.
Two other men came out of the bushes, very upset, screaming things such as “We’re going to call the police” and “Going to get you charged for that, why would you do that?”
Mr Phelan kept repeating “Keep your distance”, she said. He spoke “rather calmly”, saying: “All right, go ahead, call the police, just keep your distance.”
“They kept on walking towards him, yelling, there was a verbal argument, they were just very upset.”
When they were about two metres away from Mr Phelan, he “out of nowhere”, pulled out a small gun and shot it through the air, screaming very loudly: “Keep your distance.”
The two men started turning around and running away, she said. Mr Phelan shot one of the men “into the back”, he immediately fell to the ground and she had phoned for an ambulance, she said.
She made a 999 call for an ambulance. She became distressed when her call was played in court.
Under cross-examination, Seán Guerin SC, for Mr Phelan, suggested the reason she did not feel endangered when the trespassers were walking after Mr Phelan was “because the person they were coming for was Diarmuid, not anyone else”.
“I would not say that was the reason,” she replied. “These two guys did not seem a danger to any of the people who were there, there was a verbal conflict, they were upset.”
She agreed with counsel it was clear they were coming for Mr Phelan, were walking quickly and in a determined fashion and were “determined to get to him”.
When counsel asked, when the first shot was fired, would she agree they had been physically close enough to hit Mr Phelan “a split second later”, she said she “would not necessarily agree”.
“If they would have kept walking towards him, that is possible,” she said. She was confident the two men had turned around and started to run away before the last shot was fired, she said.
Earlier, family members of Mr Conlon left court sobbing when they heard him say “Thirty-five. I got shot at” to a 999 call responder on February 22nd, 2022, after the responder asked Ms Fengler to put him on the call and asked his age.
The jury heard an earlier 999 call was made at 22 seconds past 1.05pm by Mr Phelan before Mr Conlon was shot. In that, Mr Phelan said there were intruders on the farm and asked for gardaí to come quickly. He said: “We have a violent situation here, we need assistance.”
Shouting can be heard and Mr Phelan is heard saying: “The guards are coming now, you can talk to them”; and “Go back down, go down.”
The trial continues on Monday before Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and the jury.
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