Witness testifies in Nally trial

The manslaughter trial of Mayo farmer Padráig Nally resumed at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today after he was released from hospital where he was being treated for a medical condition.

The trial of the 62-year-old, who denies the unlawful killing of Traveller John ‘Frog’ Ward, was adjourned on Friday after the jury heard tests were being carried out on Mr Nally in hospital.

However it is now expected to conclude late tomorrow evening or early Wednesday.

Today prosecution witness Detective Sergeant James Carroll gave evidence of a statement he had taken from the accused of Funshinaugh, Cross, Claremorris after the killing on October 14, 2004.

In it, Mr Nally admitted beating the deceased 20 times with a piece of wood and shooting him as he walked along the road from the farm.

He said: “I was out of my mind for these lads calling to my house all year.”

Reading from the statement Det Sgt Carroll said Mr Nally told him that after meeting the deceased's son Tom Ward in a car in his driveway, he saw John Ward going in the back door of his farm.

He said he went back to his shed and took a gun, which was already loaded, out of a barrel there. He said he recognised Mr Ward Snr from a Saturday a fortnight before, when he had driven a black car and asked Mr Nally for directions to the lake to go fishing.

Speaking about the day of the killing Mr Nally told gardaí: “I said what are you doing in there you rogue.”

He said he was not sure if he aimed the gun but it went off with excitement, hitting Mr Ward on the right hip.

At this point he said Mr Ward went straight for him and a fight began. He kicked Mr Ward on the broad of his back and he said the pair exchanged blows. He said Mr Ward tried to pull him by the collar and kick him in the stomach “and the balls”.

He said the deceased had tried to grab the gun, but Mr Nally said he put him up against the jam in the kitchen door in a “real movie type effort”.

He said he then beat the deceased about the head with a piece of ash wood.

“I struck him on the head and hands and feet. I must have struck him 20 times anyways.”

He said Mr Ward was shouting: “Tom, Tom” for his son, who he could hear revving the car. He gave him a push and kicked him on the broad side of the back as he lay in a heap of nettles.

He said he then went into the shed to get more cartridges and when he came out he said he saw Mr Ward walking along the road towards the village of Cross.

He pulled up the gun and shot him again. He said he died instantly and he lifted up the body and threw it over a wall.

After going to a neighbour’s house to contact gardaí Mr Nally said he was suicidal and did not know if he would shoot himself or not.

He said: “I was out of my mind for these lads calling to my house all year.”

He said they had burst in on February 20 that year and taken a chainsaw.

“I’m making out it must have been the same fellas,” he told gardaí.

He also told gardaí he used to cry on Sunday nights when his sister Maureen would leave the house to go to Ballina for her job.

Under cross examination by counsel for the accused, Mr Brendan Grehan SC, Det Sgt Carroll agreed Mr Nally said his shotgun had been disturbed on one occasion, and he moved it to the hay shed, fearing it might be used against him in his house.

He said as far as he knew, Mr Nally had not come to the attention of the gardaí before, and that there had been no reason to think he was anything other than a perfectly upstanding and law abiding member of the community.

He had maintained during the interviews that he was afraid the deceased’s son Tom Ward would come back into the yard and attack him with an iron bar or a knife.

The witness also agreed the reason Mr Nally had put the body over the wall was, in case it was seen, because he feared there might be reinforcements. He had reloaded the gun after firing the second shot and took it in his car when he drove to his neighbour’s house.

Det Sgt Carroll agreed there was a fear among elderly people in the area of people coming over to their houses.

There had been an incident in the early 1980s in south Mayo before he joined the gardaí when two elderly brothers were tied up. Both of them died as a result of the incident.

Another elderly man had been tied up in Charlestown eight years ago, in a crime which is still unsolved.

In 2004, he said there had been 20 crimes against property in the local garda sub district including burglary and theft from the person or a vehicle. However, he agreed this had dropped to three, up to November 1 this year.

He said the deceased had been known to gardai and had approximately 80 previous convictions over 38 recorded dates for offences including burglary, trespass and assaulting gardaí.

He said there was an incident in May 2004 in which Mr Ward produced a slash hook and threatened gardaí at Carrowbone Halting Site in Galway, where he lived. Gardaí had also been threatened with a slash hook during another incident in April 2002.

Mr Ward was arrested for both offences but never prosecuted.

At the time of his death there were four outstanding warrants for his arrest, all for failure to appear in court.

However the witness agreed with the prosecution that these were not executed, as the deceased had been receiving psychiatric treatment in hospital in Galway at that stage.

Another witness, John Murphy from Glass Valley, Ower, Co Mayo told Mr Grehan, defending, he had been at his mother’s house not far from Mr Nally’s on the day of the killing. He said a car, which was “running bad” turned up in the yard with two people in it.

The passenger, who he described as a “heavy” man, who he believed to be a member of the Travelling community, got out and put his head in the door of the shed.

He said this man “kept on” about a statue in Tuam that had a piece broken off it and he wondered whether the witness, who worked as a stonemason, could do something about it. The man gave him a mobile number but he said: “I wasn’t too impressed with him.”

He took down the number plate of the car and followed it for a distance.

He said: “He had no business going in our shed, my mother’s shed. He was up to no good.”

He later showed the number plate he had taken down to a detective.

The prosecution in the trial has almost concluded its case and the jury of eight men and four women is expected to rise to consider its verdict either tomorrow evening or early Wednesday.

Trial judge Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins advised the jury members to bring overnight bags and the jury will begin deliberations after hearing closing speeches and his charge.