Nally cleared of manslaughter

Co Mayo farmer Padraig Nally has been cleared of the manslaughter of father-of-11 John Ward whom he shot twice and beat with a stick after the deceased entered his land.

Mr Nally believed Mr Ward, who was a member of the Travelling community, had been on his land to commit a burglary and he said he had been living in fear.

He had told gardaí at the time: “I was out of my mind for these lads calling to my house all year,” and said he had slept for just an hour the night before the killing as he had expected something to happen.

At the start of the trial he had pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Ward, who was from the Carrowbone halting site in Galway, on October 14, 2004.

The 62-year-old wept as the jury’s majority verdict of “not guilty” was read out at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

His sister Maureen, who had sat beside him during the six-day trial, later said a prayer. The jury had deliberated for a marathon 15 hours and 32 minutes over three days before reaching its verdict tonight.

The trial judge Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins, who had earlier remarked that they must be exhausted, exempted them from further jury service for another 10 years.

He told the jury: “Thank you for the care and consideration you have given to this case…It was clear from the length you took in your duties that you took this case very seriously indeed.”

He then said: “I take it the accused may be discharged.” An emotional Mr Nally, who was dressed in a pinstriped suit and black tie, took several calls from his supporters before going to speak with his lawyers.

When he emerged later to speak to the press, he said: “I want to thank the jurors for their long deliberation.

"I want to thank the legal team Brendan Grehan, Michael Bowman and Sean Foyle. I want to thank all my neighbours and friends and all who have helped me, all who have sent letters to me.”

He then added: “I feel sorry for the Ward family who have lost a father and is left with young children.”

There was no one from the Ward family in court for the verdict, although the deceased’s son Tom Ward said during the trial that all they had wanted was a fair trial.

He said the death had an effect on his whole family and that the accused had been allowed to walk around free.

Many of Mr Nally’s neighbours had travelled from Co Mayo for his trial and hailed the verdict as “everything we’d hoped for”.

Another said: “Justice has prevailed.” During the trial the court heard Mr Nally had admitted to beating Mr Ward up to 20 times with a stick after he shot him first in the hip with his single-barrel shotgun, which he had fetched from a hay shed on his land.

He then reloaded the gun and shot Mr Ward a second time as he tried to limp away from the property.

Padraig Nally was first tried and cleared of the murder of Mr Ward in November 2005 and jailed for six years for manslaughter.

He served 11 months of that term before the case was taken to the Court of Criminal Appeal and a retrial was ordered.

The three-judge appeal court ruled that the jury at Mr Nally’s original trial, presided over by Mr Justice Paul Carney, sitting in Castlebar, should have been allowed to consider the full defence of self defence.

This is what enabled the jury in the latest trial to bring in its not-guilty verdict. Mr Brendan Grehan SC, defending, told the jury that in an altercation in which an intruder came into a person's home, the homeowner is typically most at risk of finishing off the worst.

In his closing speech before the deliberations, he told them: “If you act reasonably in self defence you are entitled to acquittal and what is reasonable is determined by the jury.”

He said Mr Nally’s perception of John Ward and his son Tom was that he would be killed and he had acted in a “primeval manner” with little time to think about his actions.

He said perhaps the most important witness in the case had been his neighbour Patricia Carney, who said she had heard two shots just 90 seconds apart, which he said made it hard for anybody to work out their options and rationalise how to proceed.

“Help might as well have been on the moon from his point of view,” he told the jury.

Another neighbour of Mr Nally’s, Michael Varley, had claimed during the trial that Mr Nally was “demented with fear” about attacks on his property.

Father-of-three Mr Varley said he had known Mr Nally for as long as he had lived in the area and that Mr Nally had lived at the farm with his parents until they recently passed away.

He said: “If there was ever any bit of bother I’d just go to Padraig and he’d just drop tools and come with you.”

However, he said more recently Mr Nally had had concerns about his property, including a chainsaw and other things that had been taken.

He said: “The way Padraig would be talking, he was afraid.” He said in his opinion “the man was demented with fear”.

Asked if Mr Nally was aggressive or violent, he said: “Padraig Nally was never a violent man. He never said a word to anybody or raised a hand in his life and he wouldn’t have now but for what happened.”

He added: “Padráig Nally told me when John Ward caught him by the throat that if he got him in the testicles he would have been done for. 'It was either him or me.'”

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the court Mr Ward had died as a result of a shotgun wound to the trunk with blunt-force wounds to his head being a contributory factor.

She said the bullet wound had damaged his heart while he would also have lost a lot of blood from wounds to his head.

Death was due principally to blood loss, which was why these were a contributory factor. She said when she looked at the body at the scene she noted the deceased had a gunshot wound to his left armpit and another to his right loin.

The fatal shot had entered through his inside left upper arm and downwards into the left lung and heart.

In a series of statements taken by gardaí, Mr Nally admitted the shooting. However, he claimed: “ I was out of my mind for these lads calling to my house all year.”

On the day in question he said he had met the deceased's son, Tom Ward, in a car in his driveway.

He said he saw John Ward going in the back door of his home. 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 Sr 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 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 testicles. Mr Nally said the deceased had tried to grab the gun, but he 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, whom he could hear revving the car.

He gave him a push and kicked him in 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 Mr Ward 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 broken 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.

Mr Nally worked as a small farmer in an isolated part of Co Mayo and on the day of the killing, October 14, 2004, he was having a cup of tea and some lunch in his kitchen when he said he heard a car revving outside his house.

He said it was about 2pm in the afternoon and Mr Nally walked out of his front door, which he didn’t use very often, to find a car, which had reversed into the driveway of his farmyard.

Tom Ward said Mr Nally had asked where his father was and he replied that he had gone raound the back “for a look”.

He said Mr Nally replied with said words to the effect that “he won’t be coming out again”.