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".