Murder victim 'shot 11 times with handgun and shotgun'

A 26-year-old Dublin man died of multiple gunshot wounds, after being shot with a handgun and shotgun in a Clontarf apartment building.

Paul Kelly of O’Brien Hall in Dublin’s inner city died almost instantly, after being shot nine times with the handgun and twice with the shotgun, a murder trial has heard.

Michael Taylor (aged 30) of Summerhill in Dublin city has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Kelly on April 6, 2007 at Winston Ville apartments on Charlemont Road in Clontarf.

Denis Vaughan Buckley SC opened the trial for the prosecution at the Central Criminal Court today.

He said a lot of the evidence, including most of the substantial evidence in the case, would be circumstantial. However he said the jury would be satisfied by the end of the trial that Mr Taylor was guilty of murder.

A number of residents of the Charlemont Road area gave evidence of hearing the gunfire and seeing two armed men running from the scene.

Clifford Brennan told the court that he lived on the top floor of a building on the corner of Charlemont Rd and Cecil Ave at the time.

He said he was in bed about 11.45pm that night when he heard two loud bangs, which he first thought were just fireworks. However, when he heard more rapid bangs after a pause, he thought it was more sinister and looked out his window.

“I saw two gentlemen in balaclavas running down the road,” he recalled, explaining that they turned off Charlemont Road onto Cecil Avenue.

“One looked like he had a shotgun or iron bar. The other had a handgun,” he continued. “One was taller, the other shorter and stockier.”

He said he then heard a car being revved and it seemed to take off at speed along the Malahide Road. He dialled 999 before also hearing a woman screaming.

Raymond Duff said he was at home in nearby Victoria Villas at 11.50pm, when he heard what he described as ‘two bangs and then repeat noises’, like a car backfiring.

He said he then heard a crash, which he thought was a windscreen being smashed, and went to his front door.

“Two guys ran out of the lane,” he said of the men, who were wearing balaclavas and black gloves. “I thought they were at the cars.”

He shouted at them and one of them told him to ‘shut the f**k up’, he said.

“They turned towards me and I saw the guns, a sawn-off shotgun and a pistol,” he said. “So I moved back into the house and shut the door.”

He said he then heard screaming and, having done first aid, he ran out to see if someone was hurt.

He found a man slumped on the floor inside the entrance to Winston Ville apartments.

“I saw brain blood, that dark blood,” he said. “I knew there was nothing I could do.”

Garda Pauraic McInerney testified that he immediately began searching the area for evidence when he arrived at the scene that night.

He found a black glove at the junction of Charlemont Road and Cecil Avenue, where the two men in balaclavas had been seen running. He identified the glove to the jury in court.

Mr Justice Barry White told the nine men and three women of the jury that a legal issue had now arisen, which must be dealt with in their absence. The trial, which is expected to last just over two weeks, will resume before them on Thursday.