The jury in the trial of law professor Diarmuid Phelan has been told they should be satisfied the evidence heard by them establishes he is guilty of murder.
Roisin Lacey SC, for the prosecution, said they should focus on the evidence, including testimony from four foreign nationals who witnessed the shooting of Keith Conlon while they were working on Mr Phelan’s farm in Tallaght on February 22nd, 2022. Mr Conlon was one of three trespassers who were engaged in fox bolting on the farm, the trial heard.
Ms Lacey said one of the eyewitnesses to the shooting, a 19-year-old German student, Hannah Felgner, had said her recollection was Mr Conlon had his back to Mr Phelan when the barrister shot him in the head.
Ms Felgner described the gunshot as coming as a “complete surprise” to her because up to that point it had been a “verbal” conflict between Mr Conlon, his friend Kallum Coleman and Mr Phelan, Ms Lacey said.
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Ms Felgner said the two men were upset and angry that Mr Phelan had shot Mr Coleman’s dog but she repeatedly said she did not believe the situation was going to turn into anything physical.
Ms Felgner’s “clear and consistent” recollection was that both men had turned away when the fatal shot was fired, she said.
Ms Lacey has begun closing the case for the prosecution in the trial of Mr Phelan (56), a senior counsel and law professor, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Keith Conlon (36) at Hazlegrove farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, on February 24th, 2022.
The jury has heard Mr Conlon, a father of four, was pronounced brain-dead at Tallaght Hospital on February 24th, two days after he was critically injured during an incident at the farm on February 22nd, 2022.
The eight week trial heard Mr Conlon and two other men were fox bolting, using a dog to hunt down badgers and foxes, when trespassing on the farm.
When Mr Phelan, who the jury was told was concerned about lambing ewes, shot a dog belonging to one of the trespassers, Kallum Coleman, there were heated exchanges with the trespassers. Two of them followed him into a field, the jury has heard.
The prosecution case is two shots were fired into the air by Mr Phelan from his Smith & Wesson revolver and a third penetrated the body of Mr Conlon.
The prosecution case is, when the third shot was fired, the deceased was shot in the back of the head as he turned away and, in the circumstances, Mr Phelan had the requisite intent for murder.
Mr Phelan, the trial heard, told gardaí in interviews he believed, if he had not reacted immediately, “he would have got me”, he was “terrified”, “stressed” and “scared s**tless”.
The jury was told the defence case, as the prosecution understood it, was Mr Phelan was entitled to discharge his firearm as he did; it constituted a legitimate act of self-defence and was not done with intent to penetrate the body of Mr Conlon.
The defence case was that penetration was an unintended result due to factors including inaccuracy of the weapon, repeated firing, its light weight and heavy trigger pull, a combination of fear and stress, and the movement of the deceased.
The prosecution closing address is continuing before Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and the jury of nine men and three women.
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