Jury shown shotgun in teenager’s killing trial

A murder trial has heard that teenager Melanie McCarthy McNamara was bleeding profusely from her skull when she arrived at hospital after being gunned down in Tallaght two years ago.

The jury was also shown the shotgun that gardaí found shortly after the 16-year-old was shot in the head as she sat in a car with her boyfriend and his friend.

Daniel McDonnell of Brookview Lawns in Tallaght is on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with murdering the teenager at Brookview Way.

The 19-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the murder on Feb 8, 2012.

A statement from staff at Tallaght Hospital was read to the court yesterday. It said that Melanie had a large wound to the temple when brought into the resuscitation room at 10.40pm.

There was visible brain matter and her eyeball was protruding. The statement also said that she was bleeding profusely from her skull, mouth, and ear and that her condition deteriorated continuously.

It was after 1am when staff decided to stop resuscitation as her injury was not compatible with life. Her death was pronounced at 1.10am.

The jury also heard the statement of a boy who had been playing on Brookview Way when the shooting took place. He and another boy had been playing football on the street for a couple of hours and had seen a man hiding.

“A black jeep came up the road. I heard two bangs,” he said.

He recalled that he had grabbed his friend and pulled him over a wall.

“I got a fright so I hid behind the wall,” he said. “A gun came out. It was the length of my arm. I was over the wall like a flash.

“Earlier, a fella was on the phone hiding in the bushes, looking down the road at the silver saloon car.”

He said that this person disappeared through a gap after the shots were fired.

“I reckon he was there keeping sketch. I heard him saying: ‘The silver car is in’,” the boy recalled.

Sergeant John Schlay later showed the jury a shotgun found in Citywest hours after the killing. The court heard the area had been searched after a black 4x4 was found abandoned on nearby Citywest Rd.

“I proved the shotgun to make it safe,” said Sgt Schlay. “I noticed there were two discharged cartridges in the firing chambers.”

He then held up the double-barrelled shotgun and demonstrated how he had proved the weapon by opening it.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of six men and six women.