Dundon accused of making menacing gestures

The father of murder victim Roy Collins has told the Special Criminal Court that Wayne Dundon made intimidating gestures towards him during a previous criminal trial.

Steve Collins told the non-jury court that Mr Dundon was on trial in 2005 charged with threatening to kill his step-son. Mr Collins said the accused kept staring at him and tapping his watch, “indicating what I thought was ‘my time had come’.”

Mr Dundon, aged 36, of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, and Nathan Killeen, aged 24, of Hyde Rd, Prospect, have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of 35-year-old Roy Collins at Coin Castle Amusements, Roxboro Road Shopping Centre, on April 9, 2009.

Mr Collins was at work around noon that day when a gunman entered his arcade and shot him in the chest.

It is the prosecution’s case that Mr Dundon directed the murder from prison and that Mr Killeen was the getaway driver.

Steve Collins earlier told the trial that, after being shot, his son told him how much he loved him but could not say who had fired the gun.

The prosecution recalled Mr Collins to the witness box yesterday to ask him about a May 2005 trial in which Mr Dundon was accused of threatening to kill his step-son.

Mr Collins told Michael O’Higgins, prosecuting, that he attended every day of the trial. He said that every day Mr Dundon would be listening to music on his headphones.

Mr Collins said the accused kept tapping his watch and staring at him which caused him concern. “It felt very intimidating,” he said. “Like at some stage he was going to get me and that my time would come.”

Remy Farrell, for Mr Dundon, suggested to Mr Collins that the incident never happened and told him that prisoners are not allowed wear watches.

Mr Collins replied that he believed it was a watch but it could have been a bracelet.

The current trial has already heard evidence from Mr Dundon’s first cousin, Anthony ‘Noddy’ McCarthy, who is serving a life sentence for murder.

McCarthy gave evidence that Mr Dundon told him he had ordered the murder of Roy Collins.

He tapped the wrist of his watch hand when telling the trial that Mr Dundon said: “Steve Collins didn’t believe me when I did that in court.”

The court’s three judges have also viewed the gun allegedly used in the murder of Roy Collins.

Ballistics expert Detective Garda David O’Leary showed an unloaded 9mm pistol to the court. He said he received this for examination in 2012, along with a magazine containing three bullets.

He said the gun was rusted and covered in soil and organic material, suggesting that it had been improperly stored. However, he was able to fire it after oiling it and removing some rust. He said it was his view that marks on a cartridge found at the murder scene matched up to the handgun.

The trial continues.