Dundon ordered killing, says witness

A 26-year-old Limerick woman has told a murder trial that she heard John Dundon order a killing shortly before rugby player Shane Geoghegan was murdered, and that he panicked when he heard the wrong man had been shot.

April Collins was giving evidence to the Special Criminal Court in the trial of 30-year-old Limerick man John Dundon, who is charged with murdering the Garryowen player.

Dundon, of Hyde Rd in the city, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Geoghegan at Clonmore, Kilteragh, Dooradoyle, Limerick, on Nov 9, 2008.

The three-judge, non-jury court has already heard that the 28-year-old was gunned down in a case of mistaken identity as he returned home to his girlfriend that morning.

It is the prosecution case that he was the unintended victim of a shooting meant for another man, who lived near the deceased.

Ms Collins told the court yesterday that she had been going out with Dundon’s brother, Gerard Dundon, since she was 16 and had three children with him. She said Gerard Dundon was now in prison and they were no longer in a relationship. She said she was in the home John Dundon shared with his girlfriend, children, and a man called Barry Doyle shortly before Mr Geoghegan was shot. John Dundon, Gerard Dundon, Barry Doyle, and other people were also there.

“John started talking, explaining to Barry what John McNamara looked like,” she said. “He was saying he had a gun and a car there and everything was sorted, that it just needed to be done.

“John was telling him he was a big fella,” she continued. “He said to Barry Doyle: ‘The gun is there. You kill him’.”

“And one of ye is driving and that’s that,” he told two other men in the room.

She said they got a phone call from John Dundon to meet them at a car park on the Dublin road.

“John and Barry were parked in the car park. Barry was driving. I drove up,” she said. “John was very excited in himself, saying: ‘Johnny Mac is dead. We got him’.”

She said he then rang another man “to slag him”.

“John started panicking, giving out to Barry that it was the wrong man, not Johnny Mac,” she continued. “He was saying: ‘You hit the wrong man’. Barry was saying: ‘It is him. The way you described him, that’s the man I killed’.”

Ms Collins identified John Dundon in the courtroom.

The trial continues with Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns presiding.