Detective denies 'putting words in mouth' of murder accused

A Detective Sergeant has denied under cross-examination that he put words into the mouth of a murder accused who admitted during an interview that he had organised the shooting of a man in Ballymun in Dublin.

Det. Sgt Kevin Daly was giving evidence this morning at the Central Criminal Court in the trial of Stephen Kelly (aged 22), from Balcurris Road in Ballymun who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 28-year-old Ian McConnell who was gunned down on the first floor landing of a block of flats at Shangan Road in north Dublin in the early hours of December 11, 2005.

During his final interviews at Santry garda station Mr Kelly told gardaí he had organised the shooting but denied being the man to pull the trigger.

Today Det. Sgt Daly agreed with Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC that he was the first detective to use the word "organise" in interviews with the accused.

Ms Ring said her client had used the words "organise", "organised" or "organiser" on at least eight occasions subsequently during an interview on Monday, December 12th and twice again during an interview the following morning.

The witness said this did not strike him as odd.

Asked if he had put the word into Mr Kelly’s mouth, he replied: “He adopted that word. I introduced it but I certainly did not put it in his mouth. He was aware of what he meant.”

However he did agree he may have put the word into Mr Kelly’s head. He had since been made aware that Mr Kelly had complained to his colleagues that gardaí were putting words into his mouth, but he said he was not aware of this at the time of the interviews.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins and a jury.