Woman grappled with gunman, court hears

A witness at the Central Criminal Court yesterday described how she grappled with a gunman and bundled him over a wall after he gunned her partner down and shot her in the leg.

Sharon Rattigan was speaking at the trial of 31-year-old Gary Flynn of Rossfield Drive in Tallaght. Mr Flynn has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Seamus ‘Shay’ O’Byrne at Tymon Park North in Tallaght on March 13, 2009.

Speaking to prosecution counsel Alex Owens SC, Ms Rattigan said she had been living with Mr O’Byrne in Tymon Park for two years. On the day Mr O’Byrne died, they had returned home, and were planning to head out again.

At about 8pm she was in their car waiting for Mr O’Byrne when she saw a man in dark clothes and a hoodie walk towards her.

“His top was dark and he had a hood up but his face was not covered,” she said.

She said she thought he was going to walk on by but then he turned to Shay and started shooting. “Shay fell and I tried to run and stop him,” she said. “He turned around and shot me.”

Ms Rattigan said she had been shot in the leg, just above the knee but she kept going and tried to take the gun from him. He hit her over the head and told her: “Let go of the gun, you tramp.”

She continued: “I got the gun out of his hand. I fell over the wall and he was trying to get the gun back off me.”

After a while, the man jumped up and ran away. Ms Rattigan kept the gun and put it into her car.

The jury was also shown CCTV footage of the incident. Garda John O’Connell of Tallaght Garda Station told Mr Owens that he collected the CCTV evidence from a house in Tymon Park. He agreed with Mr Owens that the grainy images, taken on VHS camera, showed a car followed by a van entering the estate shortly after 8pm.

He said three shots could be heard in rapid succession at about 8.14pm and there is a pause before a fourth. A woman screamed before another shot rang out and the screaming could be heard again. The time from the first shot to the last was 12 seconds. Gda O’Connell then pointed out that, seconds later, a car was seen speeding out of the estate followed a short time later by a man running.

The jury has been sent home for two days for legal arguments.