Garda said 'it worked, we've got him', firearms trial hears

A Dublin woman has revealed she heard a garda repeat “It worked, we’ve got him” over the phone the night her husband allegedly pointed a loaded gun at other officers while resisting arrest.

Siobhan Dutton said she didn’t know what the “excited and hyper” garda had meant when asked under cross-examination if she’d spoken to her husband about the conversation given it’s his case that gardaí “stitched him up”.

Ian Dutton (aged 46) of Greenfort Lawns, Clondalkin, has pleaded not guilty to possessing a Glock semi-automatic pistol and ammunition in suspicious circumstances; possession of a firearm and ammunition without a certificate; and producing a firearm for the purpose of resisting arrest at Greenfort Crescent on October 4, 2005.

He also pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to obstructing a garda who was attempting to finger print him.

Mrs Dutton told prosecution counsel, Mr Shane Costelloe BL, that she believed the garda had forgotten she was within earshot while under arrest in a detective car during the phone calls.

She said she was arrested because she overheard another garda in a group of gardaí roaring “you’re dead” at her husband outside a house the Duttons had arrived at to defend their son from attack.

She denied her husband took a gun from his belt when he got out of the car and pointed it at gardaí.

Mrs Dutton told Mr John Phelan SC, that she drove her husband to the granny flat down the road from their home because Graham Dutton had called saying people were breaking through the flat’s roof.

She described, using photos of the area as a reference, how she saw three people standing in the former front porch of the house when she pulled up outside and how “a load of men with hoodies” jumped up as her husband approached a little wall, which had been there “in those days” in 2005.

Mrs Dutton said her husband may not have seen people at the front of the house because the porch may have obstructed his view from the angle he was standing.

Mr Costelloe put it to her that the photos were taken the day of the offence by a garda who gave “uncontradicted” evidence in court. He said it was the first time the jury had heard anything about a porch.

He asked her: “Are you suggesting someone came between midnight and daylight and not only knocked down the wall and took all the bricks away but also got rid of the porch?”

Mrs Dutton said she didn’t know where “the vanishing porch went” and that she knew the house occupants had since redecorated when Mr Costelloe asked her if she now accepted there was no wall and the porch “didn’t actually exist”.

Mrs Dutton accepted she was wrong about the wall if the photos had been taken that day. She denied that the street lamp in the photos was working that night, saying she wouldn’t have been able to see the hooded figures in pursuit of her husband had it been lit.

She said the light would have “blinded” her. Mr Costelloe put it to her that Dublin Corporation had given evidence to say the lamp was on at the time.

Earlier Mrs Dutton revealed she’s “persevered” making complaints against gardaí because they’ve made her life “a living hell on earth”, and kept diaries of every alleged incident, including a claim that gardaí planted drugs in her car last year.

She told Mr Phelan that she’d lost sight of her husband for about ten minutes after the gardaí chased him and that the next time she saw him he was surrounded by officers saying “something about mountains” and one garda in a Ralph Lauren shirt telling him: “You’re dead.”

She said handcuffs were “slapped” on her from behind and she was flung face-down into a police car when she shouted in response to her husband crying: “Can anyone hear these?”

She told Mr Phelan she was eventually let sit up even though she’d been in pain, and was given a cigarette when she overheard a female garda on the phone.

A forensic scientist told defence counsel, Mr Phelan, that he found no blood on the gun produced in court but found splatters and smears on clothing Mr Dutton had been wearing on arrest.

Dr Duncan Woods said this was consistent with someone with a bleeding hand being handcuffed from behind.

Mr Dutton had given evidence that his hand was slashed open on a gate as he was trying to escape the people chasing him.

Dr Woods explained that no blood on the gun could mean there never was any present, or that it may have rubbed off over time since a gun’s surface is non-absorbent.

He agreed under cross-examination that there was nothing in his support to contradict a person with an injured left hand holding the gun in the other hand and leaving no blood on the weapon.

He further agreed with Mr Costelloe that it takes a while for blood to flow when someone is cut.

The trial has reached closing stages before Judge Frank O’Donnell and a jury of six men and six women.