Murder trial evidence ‘like strands of rope’

THE prosecution in a murder trial has told the jury it can use evidence of motive, DNA and mobile phone use together to convict the defendant of murder.

Colm O’Briain BL was closing the case for the state in the trial of a 31-year-old Dublin man charged with murdering another Dublin man in 2007.

Michael Taylor, of Summerhill, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Paul Kelly at Winston Ville apartments, Charlemont Road, Clontarf, where Mr Kelly was staying.

Mr Kelly, aged 26, from O’Brien Hall, Dublin, died almost instantly when he was shot several times at 11.45pm on April 6, 2007.

Mr O’Briain compared the evidence to a rope composed of several strands.

He referred to a feud between the deceased and the accused, and their families, as the strand of motive.

He said the second strand was the evidence that showed a phone number used on the night belonged to the accused, and this number used a phone mast in Clontarf four times at the time of the killing.

The third strand of evidence, he said, was the glove found along the route taken by the killers as they fled the scene. DNA matching Taylor’s was found on the inside of the glove.

Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, questioned when the glove was dropped, and said there was also a partial DNA profile of another person on the glove.

He also cast doubt on the ownership of the phone number that used the mast.

“If you look at this evidence closely, you wouldn’t hang a dog on it, much less convict someone of a serious crime,” he said.

Both sides have now finished their closing speeches and Mr Justice Barry White will begin charging the jury this morning.