Youth claims murder victim had threatened him with INLA

An 18-year-old on trial for murder told Gardaí the neighbour he is accused of shooting dead had threatened to “put him in a wheelchair” and said he had paid the INLA who would come knocking on his door.

Conor Duffy, who denies murdering Aidan O'Kane (aged 50), in December 2008 in East Wall, Dublin said he shot the father-of-one in panic, believing Mr O'Kane was armed with a gun after he had chased him wearing a balaclava. Duffy was 16 at the time.

Mr O'Kane died shortly after sustaining a single gunshot wound. The bullet went straight through his chest, piercing his heart and lungs.

Duffy of St Mary's Road, East Wall, has also pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition and to having a firearm without a licence.

Prior to the shooting, Duffy had been on good terms with his neighbour and had been in his house several times, when Mr O'Kane – a mechanic – had fixed his bike, and on other occasions to smoke joints.

But the two had fallen out when Mr O'Kane accused Duffy of stealing his bike and made threats towards him.

“He told me he was going to put me in a wheelchair...he told me the INLA would knock on my door. He told me he had paid them,” Duffy told detectives following his arrest.

On the evening in question, Duffy and two other youths threw eggs at Mr O'Kane's house and then ran away to join a large group of teenagers on the street.

Mr O'Kane, whom the court heard had been harassed by local youths for months, decided to confront them. He changed into a biker jacket and balaclava, before leaving the house armed with a retractable baton.

When he appeared on the street people began screaming that he had a gun, as he kept his hands behind his back. Duffy said he became afraid when Mr O'Kane ran at his group, and he could see the top of a black object in his jacket, and thought it was a gun.

He remembered a hand-gun he had discovered three days prior wrapped in newspaper in undergrowth, and cycled away to get it. Duffy said he had never seen or held a gun before and he didn't know if it was loaded when he picked it up.

He cycled back with the gun then dropped his bike when he saw Mr O'Kane and backed away into a lane off Bargy Road, with Mr O'Kane following him. Duffy denied he was luring his neighbour into the lane so he could shoot him without anyone seeing.

“I didn't know what he was going to do, he ran at me so I backed in...I thought he had a gun and I just wanted to frighten him. I had no intention of shooting him,” he said.

Duffy said Mr O'Kane had his right hand in his jacket and said “shoot me” before slowly starting to pull something out of his top.

“I pressed the trigger, I didn't know what was going to happen...there was a big bang. I ran away,” Duffy said, saying he had aimed for the leg but the gun “went up” when he fired it.

He admitted that he had decided to shoot Mr O'Kane in the leg before he left to get the gun.

In his initial interviews with Gardaí, Duffy repeatedly denied he had been at the scene. In his fourth interview he broke down in tears and admitted the shooting, following a confession to his father.

The trial resumes on Monday next before a jury of five men and seven women.