Defence question confession in murder trial

An alleged confession made by a Galway traveller who was "liable to making false confessions" was the only piece of evidence in the murder case against him, a defence counsel told a jury at the Central Criminal Court today.

Mr Gerard Clarke SC told the jury of four women and eight men that the "only actual evidence" the prosecution had in their case was a confession by Patrick Harty and warned them it was "dangerous to act on a statement that’s uncorroborated" or backed up by other evidence.

Mr Patrick Harty (aged 30) is pleading not guilty to the murder of his cousin Mr Thomas Harty (aged 26) at Woodlands Park Halting Site, Ballymorris Road, Co Laois over four years ago. The deceased was killed by two shot gun wounds to the chest and back after he was shot in his bed as he slept with his wife and family in their caravan on Sunday 16 May 1999.

The accused, with an address at Carrowbrowne Halting Site, Carrowbrowne, Headford Road, Galway also denies a charge of possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life.

His defence counsel told the jury that the alleged confession made by Patrick Harty was made in July 1999, two months after the murder when investigating gardaí knew whose car was used in the incident.

"Garda Clancy did somewhat reluctantly say that they may have asked a few questions but it’s not realistic," said Mr Clarke.

He told the jury it took two Garda detectives three hours to take the statement from Mr Harty but that it took Garda Clancy only twenty minutes to read out the statement in court.

"This would have taken say, an hour to write. What went on for the other two hours when Patrick Harty was telling his story?" he put to the jury.

"The reality is that the gardaí were putting all the information they knew to Mr Harty and putting it into the statement," said Mr Clarke.

He said the gardaí interrogated the accused "all over the first day and well into the second day, all ending up with a so-called confession".

He put to the jury that Mr Harty was put through 17 ½ hours of interrogation because the gardaí didn’t believe him. "They didn’t believe it because they didn’t like it. There’s something very odd about that," he said.

Mr Clarke also told the jury to be "very suspicious" of a wrong statement put into the book of evidence involving Mr Harty. A statement naming Mr Harty as the driver of a seized car was later changed to name a different person. So far the prosecution have been unable to provide an explanation for the changed statement. "There’s something very murky about that change of evidence," Mr Clarke put to the jury.

Mr Clarke summed up by warning the jury of the dangers of convicting someone on uncorroborated evidence and said "justice suggests that the verdict should be one of not guilty".

Earlier the prosecution counsel Mr Edward Comyn SC told the jury of "a murderous hatred" between the two feuding Harty families that resulted in the murder of Thomas Harty. "This was certainly something that was more than just bad feeling. This was a very, very serious dislike and dispute between the families," he said.

"This was a very deliberate killing. The activities of the two men that night were those of an intention to kill. It was clearly an assassination," said Mr Comyn to the jury.

He said Mr Patrick Harty implicated himself in the murder through his interviews with the gardaí in which he "clearly indicated that he was involved in this murder" and called for a verdict of guilty on both accounts.

The trial concludes tomorrow before Mr Justice John Quirke.