Prosecution describe victim's car as 'slaughter pen'

The prosecution in a murder trial has described as "a slaughter pen" the car in which the victim was shot dead and his two friends wounded.

The prosecution in a murder trial has described the car in which the victim was shot dead and his two friends wounded as "a slaughter pen" .

Pieter Le Vert BL was giving his closing speech at the Central Criminal Court in the trial of a man charged with murdering a 20-year-old man as has he sat in his car.

David Patchell (aged 21) of Rossfield Crescent, Tallaght admitted being one of two gunmen, who shot into the parked car on January 19, 2009 at Kilmartin Drive, Tallaght.

However, he has pleaded not guilty to murdering Stephen O’Halloran. He also denies attempting to murder Paul Core and Anthony Harte and to causing them serious harm on the same occasion. They too were sitting in Mr O’Halloran’s car outside his home.

Mr Le Vert reminded the jury that at least 10 shots were fired at or into the car.

“It’s clear that bullets were firing fast and furious in that car and that people were getting hurt repeatedly by them,” he said. “Because that enclosed car, on January 19, was a slaughter pen.”

He said that Mr Patchell contributed to that by firing his weapon into the car.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, reminded the jury that his client said he was forced to carry out the shooting, after a criminal gang threatened to kill him and his parents.

The court heard that the gang had accused the then 19-year-old of taking €5,000 worth of cocaine and this was how he had to clear his debt.

The evidence was that Mr Patchell had three bullets and shot from the passenger side, while the other gunman had seven bullets and shot from the driver’s side, where Mr O’Halloran was sitting.

Mr Grehan reminded the jury that the main evidence against his client came in the form of his admissions.

“We wouldn’t be here if David Patchell didn’t sing his heart out in the garda station,” he said. “No-one else has been prosecuted.”

He said that his client had first tried to protect his family and friends by saying nothing. He noted that he was not successful in the case of his friend, Paul Byrne, who went missing months later, and whose body was since found in the Dublin Mountains.

“He gave chapter and verse to the gardaí,” he said. “Some concession has to be made in regards to his admissions.”

He noted that his client had played for Shamrock Rovers as a teenager.

“He could have been the next Robbie Keane. The world was at his feet,” he concluded. “Instead his life is in ruins.”

Mr Justice Barry White told the seven women and five men of the jury that they could safely take it that this was an unlawful killing.

He reminded them that a person is presumed to have intended the natural and probable consequences of his or her actions.

“Ask yourself what are the natural and probable consequences of firing a series of shots into a car containing a person,” he said.

He said that the prosecution was relying on the doctrine of joint enterprise, where each participant is as guilty as the other.

“The prosecution alleges that there was a joint enterprise to result in the death of Stephen O’Halloran, that the accused participated and is as guilty as the other man, even though the State can’t prove which caused the fatal shots,” he said.

“You have to be satisfied that the accused took part in a joint enterprise,” he concluded.

The jury deliberated for an hour and a quarter this evening, before being sent home for the night. It will resume its deliberations tomorrow morning.