Murder accused was driver of getaway van

A traveller accused of murdering a cousin at a halting site in Laois four years ago was the driver of the getaway car for two men who broke into the victim's caravan and shot him twice as he lay in bed, a jury at the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Opening the case for the prosecution on the first day of Mr Patrick Harty's murder trial, Mr Edward Comyn SC told the jury that even though the accused did not go into the caravan nor did he have the gun or pull the trigger, he was "equally guilty as the men who pulled the trigger as it was a part of a joint enterprise".

"All the people who were in that arrangement are equally guilty of murder" he added.

The court heard the Harty family was split into two feuding branches, one called the 'Donnacha' Hartys of which the deceased was a member and the 'Nay' Hartys of which the accused is a member.

"The Nay Hartys held to blame the Donnacha Hartys, particularly Thomas, for a violent death of one of their own" Mr Comyn told the court.

Mr Harty denies the murder of Mr Thomas Harty at Woodlands Park halting site, near Portarlington, Co Laois in the early hours of Sunday 16 May 1999.

The trial continues today before Mr Justice John Quirke and a jury of eight men and four women.