A senior lawyer has been remanded in custody after being charged with the murder of Keith Conlon who was shot on farmland near Tallaght, Dublin, earlier this week.
Diarmuid Phelan (53) appeared before Judge Patricia McNamara on Friday at Tallaght District Court.
The defendant, a senior counsel and law lecturer, of Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, is accused of the murder of Mr Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, on Tuesday.
The deceased was a father of four from nearby Kiltalown Park.
The dog breeder was severely injured in the shooting incident at the foot of the Dublin mountains. He was rushed to Tallaght University Hospital where he remained on life support until he died on Thursday.
Gardaí arrested the accused at the scene and detained him at Tallaght station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, 1939.
The legal professional and academic was charged on Thursday at 11.23pm and held pending his court appearance on Friday morning.He sat silently in court as Det Garda Michael McGrath gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution.
The detective told Judge McNamara he arrested Mr Phelan “for the offence of murder of Keith Conlon on February 22nd”. He said the station sergeant charged the accused, and he was handed a copy of the charge sheet.
“He made no reply to charge after caution,” he said.
Defence solicitor Eddie O’Connor asked for the case to be adjourned until Wednesday. The detective asked for it to be put back until next Friday.
Judge McNamara agreed and remanded the accused in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on March 4th.
Mr O’Connor said there was no further application at this stage. The judge noted that there was no legal aid application.
At the end of the five-minute hearing, the accused nodded and said, “Thank you, judge”, before being escorted from the courtroom to await transfer to prison.
About 20 minutes later, his departure in custody from the courthouse area was highly charged as gardaí intervened when members of the public, hurling abuse, attempted to block and surround a vehicle bringing him away.