Dublin murder accused: I don't know how to use gun

A Dublin man on trial for murder told gardaí that serious criminals threatened he would be dead if he did not kill Stephen O'Halloran.

David Patchell of Rossfield Crescent denies murder but has admitted being one of two gunmen who fired at the 21-year-old who was shot as he sat in his car with friends outside his home on January 19, 2009 at Kilmartin Drive, Tallaght.

He also denies the attempted murder of two of the men who were in the car.

David Patchell told gardaí he had never used a gun, did not know how to load it and could only see flashes on the night he and another man shot at Stephen O'Halloran's car.

He claims he never intended to kill or shoot anyone and had acted in fear having been set up over a bogus drugs debt.

In interviews he said serious criminals wrongly accused him of stealing €5,000 worth of their coke and threatened his life and his family if he "bottled the hit".

He said he fled the scene, dumped the gun in a garden and heard no more from the men who had ordered the killing.

He told gardaí he believed the shooting was over drugs and that he believed the victim's two friends who were injured in the car were in the wrong place at the wrong time.