Kelly found guilty of Ballymun murder

A Dublin man had to be restrained by gardaí after he was convicted by a jury of the murder of Ian McConnell, who was shot at close range in the back of the head at a Ballymun tower block in December 2005.

As the jury delivered its unanimous verdict Stephen Kelly (aged 22) from Balcurris Road in Ballymun rose to his feet and shouted: “Shut the f*** up” at members of the McConnell family.

The jury quickly left the courtroom. After a short adjournment, Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins sentenced Kelly to life in prison to which he replied: “I’ll take that on my back.”

The jury of three women and nine men had been deliberating for 8 hours and 15 minutes over a two-day period at the Central Criminal Court before returning its verdict.

28-year-old Ian McConnell 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.

He died from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, fired from close to point blank range.

Members of the McConnell family sobbed and hugged each other as the verdict was read out, but wished to say nothing to the court or waiting media.

Mr McConnell, who had a partner and young children, was targeted as part of a suspected feud between rival gangs in the Coultry and Shangan areas of Ballymun.

The accused, himself a father-of-one, who sometimes goes by the name ‘Ned Kelly’ told gardaí it was a “mad feud” that had been going on in the area for a year and a half before the murder, involving “tit for tat” incidents.

Eyewitness Sinead Knowd told the jury on day one of the trial that she saw Kelly carry out the shooting.

She told Mr Michael O’Higgins SC, prosecuting, she had been drinking at the block of flats with the deceased.

“I was just standing there and I was talking to Ian,” she said. “When I turned around I was in shock, because he’s just got shot on the ground, dead.”

She said the person who had fired the shot was standing right beside her about two feet away: “He ran up stood there and shot him, bang. It could have been me.”

Asked if the gunman had spoken she said: “I just remember him saying get out of the way, or something.”

She said the deceased man was over in the stairwell: “He fell with his hands behind his back and his legs crossed over.”

During a series of interviews with gardaí, which lasted more than 16 hours, Kelly eventually confessed to having organised the hit, but consistently denied he was the man to pull the trigger.

He told detectives: “I organised it”, but said the only reason he had gone to the scene was because the deceased had previously shot him in the back.

He denied the murder had anything to do with an incident in which a person, named in court, was alleged to have raped a minor.

Asked about some people’s claims that there was a video clip showing this minor giving this named person oral sex, he said: “It’s nothing got to do with this. The only reason I went round there was because he shot the back off me, at close range too, the bas***d.”

The accused agreed with gardaí during his interviews that he was a family man, and not a born killer, who had got caught up and could not get out.

However, when he took to the witness stand during the twelve-day trial Kelly again denied any involvement and claimed he had been taking cocaine and the sedative Dalmaine, which he had concealed up his back passage before the interviews.

He was found to have the substances in his urine, but a number of medical witnesses and gardaí said he showed no signs of being under the influence of the drugs during the interviews.

He also accused gardaí of having put words in his mouth when he said Mr McConnell was shot, because he owed money to people in Finglas for drugs.

He said: “I was telling them what they wanted to hear. I just made up a story about two fellas from Finglas.”

After sentencing Kelly to life in prison, Mr Justice O’Higgins thanked the jury in the case and praised the professionalism of the barristers.

Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC, defending, said she was seeking leave to appeal on the basis that statements in the case had been wrongfully admitted. This was refused, but legal aid was granted in the event of such an appeal.