Murder accused tells court he 'only meant to shoot friend in the arms'

The trial of a Dublin man accused of murdering his friend has heard he only meant to shoot him in the arms and thought he would run.

Jonathan Dunne (aged 26), of Windmill Park, Crumlin in Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ian Kenny at Lakelands Road, Stillorgan on July 31, 2009.

The jury heard Dunne is serving a 12-year sentence for the attempted murder of his friend who has since died and is now on trial for his murder.

Dunne, who denies murdering Mr Kenny, told gardaí in an interview he shot his friend in the arm and thought he would run.

“My intention was to shoot him in the arms... if Ian had run, I wouldn’t have followed him,” Dunne told gardai.

“I was told to put two shots in his head but I hadn’t got the bottle – I’m not a killer,” he added.

Dunne said he went to shoot him in the arm again but the gun jumped and the gunshot went into his friend’s head.

The court heard the events in which Mr Kenny (aged 21), a father-of-two who was also from Crumlin, sustained the gunshot wounds, took place two years earlier on July 4, 2007.

Mr Kenny was a front-seat passenger in the car when he was shot twice at close range by a sawn-off shotgun then pushed out of the car in broad daylight outside shops in the residential area.

He sustained a gunshot wound on the right-hand side of the head and in his right shoulder but survived in a vegetative state for two years until he died on July 31, 2009.

Dunne, a qualified plumber who worked as a gas technician, told gardaí he later set his car on fire with a gas cannister and torch from work.

He also told gardaí in interview that he owed a favour for losing hash worth €50,000 when he was a teenager.

Dunne said a week before the incident a gun was pointed at his head by “people in Crumlin” and he did not think the gardaí could protect him.

He said he was told to pick up a gun which was hidden on the grounds of a school in Drimnagh which he said was already loaded.

“I cannot tell the names of those men..these men are at the centre of everything in Crumlin”, Dunne told gardaí in an interview.

“I’m sorry for doing everything I’ve done especially for what I’ve done to my friend Ian – it was either his life or my family’s,” he added.

Mr Brendan Grehan SC defending told the jury at the beginning of the trial the issue was one of causation of death.

Mr Grehan put it to Garda Liam Brennan under cross-examination that this was not the first incident where Mr Kenny was shot at, but the garda said he was unaware of that happening.

But Inspector Michael Gibbons told Mr Grehan he was aware of an incident on September 27, 2006 in which Sergeant Mark Clarke was shot in the chest at the Kenny household at Monasterboice Road, Crumlin after he intervened. He also agreed that Ian Kenny was present at the time.

Insp. Gibbons also confirmed that Dunne had only one previous conviction for driving with no insurance.

The trial continues before a jury of seven men and five women presided over by Mr Justice Paul Carney.