Murder accused claims he witnessed another man kill victim

A 27-year-old accused of murdering a man in Co Wicklow three years ago has given evidence at his trial that he saw another man shoot the deceased.

Michael Dickenson of no fixed abode and formerly of Darragh Park, Wicklow town has pleaded not guilty to murdering Steven O’ Meara at Ballydonnell Wood, Red Cross on or about August 6, 2009.

Mr O'Meara, a 26-year-old father-of-three from Rosehill in Wicklow town, was last seen on August 6, 2009 and his body was found by gardaí in a shallow grave in the woods five months later, on Christmas Eve.

Today Mr Dickenson, who was called to give evidence by his counsel Mr Patrick Marrinan SC, said that he drove Mr O’Meara up the woods where two men were already waiting to meet him.

The accused said he was expecting them to be there and he thought that an arrangement had been made to pay off part of a €15,000 drug debt that his brother had run up.

He said Steven O’Meara had started ringing his brother six weeks before the incident but that he had no grievance with the deceased himself.

The accused said that he thought the men were helping his brother “to sort out the debt” and that they were going “to warn him off over the threats” that had been made to his sibling.

Mr Dickenson said one of the men slapped Mr O’ Meara on the face and he was then told to get on the ground.

The accused said that one of these men shot Mr O’ Meara twice in front of his car and that his body was then put in a shallow grave.

Mr Dickenson told the court that soil was dragged out of a bank and Steven O’Meara was covered with it.

“Before they shot him I heard Steven saying ‘get it over and done with’,” Mr Dickenson told the court.

“I was afraid if I had said anything, I’d have been shot myself,” the accused told the court.

“ I was afraid I’d be killed myself because I’d witnessed it,” he added.

When asked about the demeanour afterwards of the person he said shot Mr O’ Meara he answered: “It didn’t bother him”.

He told Mr Marrinan a shovel was already there and he did not assist in covering over the body.

The following Sunday he said he went to England with his brother because he feared for his life and thought he was going to be killed by either friends of Mr O’ Meara or one of the two men in the woods.

He said he later learned that the two men had been paid €6000 to kill Mr O’Meara by another person.

He told the court he felt “horrible” afterwards, that he “smoked more drugs to blank it out” and thought about killing himself.

When asked by Mr Marrinan how he felt about his involvement now he replied: “Stupid for having anything to do with it”.

When Mr Marrinan asked him if he knew Mr O’ Meara was going to be shot he replied: “No”.

The trial continues on Thursday before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy.