Jurors in a law professor’s murder trial were invited to hold and pull the trigger of the revolver with which he fatally shot an unarmed trespasser on his farmland.
The prosecution invited the 12 members of the jury to hold the Smith & Wesson handgun within the jury box and pull the trigger to get a sense of the amount of pressure required.
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford, who is presiding over Diarmuid Phelan’s trial, declined to pull the trigger of the revolver, saying: “I think I’ll pass on that”.
Mr Phelan (56), has pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Mr Conlon (36), at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on February 24th, 2022.
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Mr Phelan is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
Det Garda Seamus O’Donnell, who is attached to the ballistics and forensics investigation section of An Garda Síochána, told John Byrne SC, prosecuting, that he had considered a defence report from Curtis Marshall, who had made observations about the heavy trigger pull of the revolver.
“Is it consistent with 4.98kg or 11 pounds of pressure to pull the trigger. How does a heavy trigger pull feature when considering the safety of a gun?” asked Mr Byrne.
The detective said the revolver had no manually activated safety mechanism or safety switch. “Some semi-automatic pistols would have a safety switch that would trigger block. This doesn’t have such a feature. You have to pull the trigger and maintain pressure. Revolvers such as this are regarded as very safe in that regard,” he added.
Asked whether it was possible to discharge the weapon accidentally, the detective said he was not aware of any cases he had been involved in where that had happened. Det Garda O’Donnell confirmed he had 18 years’ experience in ballistics.
Mr Byrne then told the jury he was going to invite them to hold the revolver and pull the trigger. He told the court the weapon had been made safe but that “nobody has to do this” and that “it could be a useful exercise”.
He said each juror could hold the firearm in a downward trajectory and pull the trigger to get a sense of the five kilos of pressure required.
Counsel said the gun was safe and it could do “nobody any harm”.
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford declined to pull the trigger.
Mr Byrne stressed that the exercise was not mandatory but it would give the jurors an idea of the pull pressure required.
Before a garda presented the revolver and pairs of gloves to each member of the jury, the judge said she would first like to see the officer make the firearm safe.
Mr Byrne told the judge that this had already been done but it could be done again.
Eight of the 12 jurors opted to pull the trigger of the revolver.
In cross-examination, Sean Guerin SC, defending, put it to the witness that one of their experts, police psychologist Dr William Lewinski, had said in his report that the light weight of the gun and the very heavy trigger pull made the gun very safe but could cause serious problems for the control and accuracy when used at any distance.
The detective replied that, based on the tests he carried out, he would have to disagree.
It was put to the detective that people often fire revolvers with one hand and there was nothing in the Smith & Wesson safety and instruction manual which says not to do this. The detective agreed it was commonly done.
In her opening address, Roisin Lacey SC said the jury will hear evidence that three men including Mr Conlon had trespassed on a wooded area of Mr Phelan’s land while hunting foxes or badgers on February 22nd, 2022. Ms Lacey said that Mr Phelan told gardaí he became concerned about a dog running loose on his land towards his sheep and shot it with his rifle, whereupon, he said, three men “exploded” from the woods and began threatening him.
The jurors were also told that Mr Phelan said he was shaking with fear and “scrambled” up a bank to get away, but when the men got closer, he reached for his Smith & Wesson revolver in his pocket and fired in the air over their heads but was “stunned when one man went down”, the court has heard.
Mr Conlon, from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident on February 22nd and died at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.
The trial continues.
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