Woman tells court her brother attempted to murder her husband

A woman has told a jury that her brother entered her bedroom, put a gun to her husband’s head and twice pulled the trigger.

Charlie Darcy (aged 20) denies attempting to murder his brother-in-law, Patrick Collins, at Cooley Road, Drimnagh, on August 31, 2008. He has also pleaded not guilty to burglary and aggravated burglary in that he entered the address with the intention to commit murder while in possession of a firearm.

Linda Collins told John Aylmer SC, prosecuting, that she was in bed with her husband and their two-week-old baby on a Saturday night when she heard a noise outside. She looked out the window and saw a man at her gate and two heads at the window below.

“Before I knew it there were three of them in my room. One came over and put the gun to Patrick’s head and pulled the trigger twice,” she said. The gun did not go off.

Mrs Collins said the man with the gun was wearing a scarf over his face. She said her husband jumped up and pushed the gunman. She said the scarf fell down and she could see that it was her brother.

She said that one man had said: “Shoot him,” and her brother said: “It won’t work,” and then her husband jumped up and ran down stairs followed by the three men.

Mrs Collins said that she pulled at her brother’s jumper asking him to stop as he went down stairs. She said he turned and said: “Let me go,” and she saw his face.

She said that in the garden she said: “Why Charlie?” to which he replied: “I’m not Charlie.” She said she saw his face again. “I wouldn’t say it was him unless it was him.”

Under cross-examination by Sean Gillane BL, defending, Mrs Collins denied that she told gardaí that there were two rather than three men in the bedroom. She said that gardaí must have misunderstood her.

She denied Mr Gillane’s suggestion that she had “stitched Charlie into this afterwards”.

“Why would I say he was there if he wasn’t?” she asked. Mr Gillane put it to her that she had made significant changes to her story to match the evidence earlier given in court by her husband and that the accused was on the “wrong side of your family dispute”.

Mr Aylmer read memos of interview with the accused to the jury in which Mr Darcy told gardai that he had been at a funeral in Donegal from the Wednesday before the alleged incident until the Thursday the following week.

Mr Darcy told gardaí that he had gone to Donegal with his brother, father, brother-in-law and a friend. He said they had all stayed at a cousin’s house in Bundoran for eight days. He said his aunt’s husband had been suffering from cancer when they arrived and had died on the Sunday on Monday.

Asked by gardaí about a family feud, Mr Darcy said: “Whatever is going on up there has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with me,” and: “Anything that happens over there, we get the blame of.”

Mr Darcy said he had been away for over three years and said: “If I wasn’t here someone else in my family would get the blame." He said he had not spoken to his sister for four or five years and alleged that Mr Collins had a cocaine problem and was making his wife make certain statements.

Mr Darcy told gardaí that he would not have done what he had been accused of: “I wouldn’t have the balls. That’s the father of her children and her husband. He’s not telling her what the real problem is.”

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney.