State Pathologist: Rugby player was shot five times

The jury in the Shane Geoghegan murder trial has been given a demonstration of how the gun used to murder the Garryowen rugby player could be loaded and unloaded.

Ballistics expert Detective Garda Mark Collendar was giving evidence to the Central Criminal Court in the second day of the trial of a Dublin man charged with murdering the 28-year-old.

Barry Doyle (aged 26) of Portland Row in Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Geoghegan on November 9, 2008 at Clonmore, Kilteragh, Dooradoyle in Limerick.

Dressed in a dark suit and pink shirt today, he watched Det. Gda Collendar as he loaded dummy bullets into a Glock semi-automatic pistol, which he assured the court could not fire.

Det. Gda Collendar showed the jury how bullets could be ejected manually from the black handgun without firing them.

“It’s called racking,” explained the detective, whose training included shooting scene reconstructions in the USA.

He explained that this process of unloading the weapon would be used if there was a stoppage or if the gun jammed.

He gave the demonstration after showing the jury two un-discharged rounds of ammunition he had found at the crime scene in Clonmore. Both bullets had ejector marks, meaning they’d been inside a semi-automatic pistol and had to be ejected manually, he explained.

He said he also found eight discharged cartridge cases, all of which had been fired from the same Glock that had contained the two un-discharged rounds. The Glock was never recovered, he said.

Earlier, State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy testified that Mr Geoghegan died of gunshot injuries to his head and trunk. Extensive injuries to his brain and trauma to his right lung were both potentially fatal, she said.

She was giving details of the post-mortem exam, which showed the rugby player had been shot five times. He was shot in the back of his head, in his right upper arm, in his abdomen and twice in his back; she recovered three bullets from his body.

She said that once the injury to the back of his head had been sustained, he would have been incapable of movement and would have collapsed and died rapidly. This was because the bullet had completely transected the brain stem and was therefore probably the last injury he sustained, she said.

The injury to his arm, which injured three ribs and his right lung, was also potentially fatal, she said.

She said that he may have been on the ground where he was found when the wounds to the back of his head and back of his left shoulder were inflicted.

She said an injury to the right side of his back might have been inflicted when he was bending or crouching and facing his attacker.

The injury to his arm was probably inflicted when his front right side was facing the attacker. The abdominal injury was probably inflicted when his left side was facing the attacker, she added.

She explained that the different trajectories of the bullets meant movement of one or both parties.

Prof. Cassidy also identified the clothing Mr Geoghegan was wearing the night he was killed. She pointed to the bullet holes and blood stains in his hat, jacket and polo shirt.

In his opening speech, Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, said that Barry Doyle admitted shooting Mr Geoghegan during garda interviews.

He said that the Garryowen player was killed in a case of mistaken identity, but that this was immaterial.

The trial continues on Thursday before Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and a jury of eight men and three women.