Tom Ward gives gives evidence in Nally trial

The son of a Traveller shot dead by Mayo farmer Padráig Nally has said the death F***ed up his whole family and that the accused had been allowed to walk around “Scotch free”.

Tom Ward was giving evidence on day two of the trial of Padráig Nally, aged 62, of Funshinaugh, Cross, Claremorris who has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin to the unlawful killing of father of eleven John 'Frog' Ward, after he entered his land on October 14th 2004.

Tom Ward, aged 20, the forth eldest of eleven children denied under cross-examination that he had gone to the farm to commit burglary.

He said that on the day of the killing, his father had been in hospital in Galway and was not well and on medication.

They decided to “take a spin” and were just driving around when they saw an old car by Mr Nally’s house. He told prosecution counsel Paul O’Higgins SC that he and his father would buy old cars, fix them up and sell them on.

He said they stopped to buy cigarettes and a bottle of Smirnoff ice from a shop before going to the Nally farm, where he said he reversed the car in, and his father got out to knock at the door and see if the owner was home.

He said Mr Nally walked up to him and asked “Who’s gone in there?” When he replied his father was looking for the owner of the car, he claimed Mr Nally said: “He won’t be coming out alive.”

However he later admitted to Brendan Grehan SC, defending, that there had been a misunderstanding and the accused had not used the word “alive.”

The witness said he heard a gunshot after Mr Nally walked into his shed, which was in the same direction as his father had gone. He said he came out and fired off a shot.

“I seen him coming round with the gun. I heard the shot,” he said. He said he panicked and drove out to the road but turned around and came back down.

He said he could not see his father. “I got a bad feeling. I knew there was something wrong.”

He said he had shouted “Daddy, daddy,” and got back in the car. The witness said he also remembered looking out the back window of his car where he saw Mr Nally in a car, reversing out onto the road before driving away to the left.

Tom Ward said he drove in the direction of Headford where he told the gardaí he thought his father had been shot. Mr Grehan SC, defending, asked the witness if he was able to look after himself. He said: “I’m trying to anyway.”

He said he suffered from memory loss and after what happened to his father, a lot of things had happened to his family. He said he had slit his wrists, taken overdoses and tried to drive a car into a river.

Asked if a lot of people had been injured in this incident he said: “I think one person was injured. I think I hit another car, I’m not sure.”

He said his father had been treated in a psychiatric unit in Galway and had mentioned hearing voices a few times, however he said he was never told these voices were telling him to kill his mother and the witness (himself).

He said his father had a drinking problem but said: “He wasn’t that bad. Angry at us or anything like that.”

He also denied his father was a bare-knuckle fighter.

Tom Ward denied he had ever been to the Nally farm before, but asked if his father had, he replied: “That’s something I don’t know.” He added: “I never thought it would end up with my father getting murdered and the person who done it walking free. It F***ed up all our lives.”

In later evidence he said he knew his father had been in prison but he said he didn’t know what for.

Asked if he knew John ‘Frog’ Ward had 80 previous convictions over 38 different court appearances, he said: “No, I didn’t know that.”

Mr Grehan admitted some of the offences occurred before the witness was born, but asked him about offences after 1997 including burglary, handling stolen goods, assault, and larceny.

The witness said he was not sure about an incident in 1999 in which his father had threatened a barman with a Stanley knife but said he did remember “bits” of an incident in which his father had attacked a car with a slash hook, breaking the back and side windows as a woman and children sat inside.

He also said he was “not too sure” about an incident in May 2004 in which his father had produced a slash hook at the Carrowbone Halting Site in Galway where they lived, threatening members of the gardaí.

The witness also admitted he was in prison himself, serving an 11 month sentence, and had convictions under the theft and fraud act and for the possession of an offensive weapon, namely a knife.

He denied he and his father had said they were going to the Nally farm to buy a car as a “cover story.”

He said: “I wasn’t there to do anything wrong in this place. I wasn’t there before in my life. It’s the first time in my life I had been there.”

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins and a jury of eight men and four women.