A man dressed in women’s clothes asked two teenage boys for directions to a pigeon club where a man was shot 18 times with a sub-machine gun.
The teens gave evidence on Thursday in the trial of Christopher McDonald, (34), from the East Wall area of Dublin.
Mr McDonald has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 36-year-old Keith Walker at Blanchardstown Pigeon Racing Club on Shelerin Road in Clonsilla on June 12th, 2015. He is on trial at the Central Criminal Court.
It is the State’s case that the man dressed as a woman was the accused on his way to the pigeon club where Mr Walker was shot. It also emerged on Thursday that a woman reported to gardaí that a man in women’s clothing was “hanging around” the area about 90 minutes before the shooting.
The first witness said he was at the junction of Whitestown Gardens and Whitestown Avenue on the evening of June 12th, 2015, when he met a man wearing women’s gym clothes and make-up and carrying a designer handbag. He thought the man was aged in his late 30s or 40s, was about 5ft 10in and had a cut over his right eye.
The witness told prosecuting counsel Denis Vaughan Buckley SC that the man calmly asked him where the pigeon club was, but the teenager did not know. He added: "As he was going off he acted like he was in a hurry. He was walking really quick."
Make-up on his face
The second teenager said he didn’t know where the pigeon club was either, but he noticed that the man had make-up on his face and some of it had got on his teeth. He also noticed the cut above his right eye and the women’s clothes with the pink stripes.
Paul Foster, a member of the pigeon club, told Mr Vaughan Buckley he arrived that evening with eight pigeons that were to take part in a race over the weekend. As he drove into the club car park he noticed someone wearing a wig, glasses, a black jacket and tight cycling shorts with a pink stripe down the side. The person was tall and thin and "didn't look like a woman," he said, adding that he thought it was a "junkie".
He said he noticed the man looking at him and towards the people in the car park. Soon after Mr Foster had arrived, Mr Walker drove in. He had met Mr Walker two or three times and thought of him as a “bubbly chap” and a “good young fella” who was looking forward to getting married.
Mr Walker had been there about 20 minutes, chatting with other members in the car park, when Mr Foster noticed the man in the wig come into the car park and pull out a “big gun”, which he estimated to be two feet long.
Mr Foster shouted: “Hitman, hitman,” as the man started firing. He saw Mr Walker get hit and added: “The bullets were going everywhere.”
Afterwards, the gunman left through the same gate through which he had entered and Mr Walker was face down on the ground. “We turned him over,” he said, “and the whole back of his head came out”.
Mr Foster held the deceased’s hand, saying “hang on, hang on” until an ambulance arrived.
The trial continues on Friday in front of Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of six men and six women.