Murderer’s ‘phone’ was TV remote, Dundon trial told

A convicted murderer who produced what he claimed to be a mobile phone while giving evidence at the trial of two Limerick men charged with the murder of Roy Collins was instead in possession of a television remote, the Special Criminal Court has heard.

Anthony ‘Noddy’ McCarthy was yesterday recalled to give evidence in the trial of Wayne Dundon, aged 36, of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, and Nathan Killeen, aged 24, of Hyde Rd, Prospect, who have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Roy Collins, aged 35, at Coin Castle Amusements, Roxboro Road Shopping Centre, on April 9, 2009.

McCarthy, aged 32, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Kieran Keane in Limerick in January 2003.

It is the prosecution case that Mr Dundon directed the murder from prison, Mr Killeen was the getaway driver, and another man, James Dillon, was the gunman.

McCarthy was recalled for further questioning yesterday by Remy Farrell, defending Mr Dundon.

McCarthy said he did not know anyone in jail back then who did not have a phone.

He then stood up in the dock and produced an item from his pocket, saying “what’s that there, a telephone”.

Prison officer Paul Tucker told Mr Farrell that when McCarthy finished his evidence, he asked him what he had in his pocket.

Mr Tucker said the item was a television remote, not a phone. He said the item was not something that could have been acquired in the court building and looked to be the type used inside prison.

Mr Tucker agreed that as a matter of logic, McCarthy must have brought the item with him from prison.

Presiding judge Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley said the court accepted evidence that the item was essentially harmless.

However, she said it was “bewildering and unsatisfactory” that any item of that nature could have been brought in to the Special Criminal Court, of all courts, by a person of McCarthy’s status.

The trial continues.