Murder trial jury shown ballistics evidence

A murder trial jury has been shown fragments of bullets recovered from the body of the deceased as well as several bullets found in the car where he was shot.

A ballistics expert presented the exhibits to the Central Criminal Court today.

Detective Garda Jeanette O'Neill was giving evidence in the trial of a 21-year-old Dublin man charged with murdering a 20-year-old man and attempting to murder the victim’s two friends.

David Patchell of Rossfield Crescent, Tallaght has pleaded not guilty to murdering Stephen O’Halloran on January 19, 2009 at Kilmartin Drive, Tallaght.

He has also pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder Paul Core and Anthony Harte and to causing them serious harm on the same occasion when all three were sitting in Mr O’Halloran’s car outside his home.

D Gda O’Neill said she was given fragments from bullets found in Mr O’Halloran’s hand, neck and oesophagus when she attended his post-mortem exam the following day.

She could see that he had received gunshot wounds to his head and upper arms as well as to his neck.

She found seven bullets and a bullet fragment inside his car and recovered a live round of ammunition and nine discharged cartridge cases from the ground in front of the car.

The detective said that their location indicated that one assailant fired from outside the front driver’s side towards the front driver’s side and that another fired from outside the front passenger side into the front passenger side.

She found two semi-automatic Glock pistols in a nearby garden.

The Crime Scene Manager, Detective Sergeant John Higgins, said another discharged cartridge casing was later found underneath the car, having probably fallen through the engine area.

He testified that this casing, along with one found in the driver’s side of the windscreen well, and another found on the ground near the front passenger side of the car all came from one of the Glocks recovered. In his opinion, these three were discharged from the passenger side of the car.

“The remainder were discharged from the other Glock pistol,” he said. “These seven seemed to be discharged on the driver side of the vehicle.”

He testified that all the bullets recovered came from Glock pistols but said it wasn’t possible to be sure which bullet came from which gun.

This, he explained, was due to the condition of the bullets and the fact that Glocks were mass-produced and not hand-finished.

The seven women and five men of the jury will tomorrow hear memos of the 17 garda interviews conducted with the accused after his arrest.

Mr Justice Barry White told them that certain names would be deleted and replaced with Mr X or Mr Y. He said this evidence would take about a day, after which the prosecution’s case would end.