Two witnesses afraid of giving evidence, murder trial hears

The murder trial of Dublin man Jonathan Douglas has heard two witnesses told gardai they had a fear of giving evidence for the prosecution.

The 27-year-old from O'Devany Gardens is accused of shooting Aidan Byrne ten times at Drumalee Avenue off the North Circular Road in the city on February 20th 2010.

Two prosecution witnesses have retracted their statements, the first is Jonathan Douglas's step-niece Stacey.

She originally told gardaí that the accused arrived at her house on the night of the killing with a gun and said that he had been offered money to carry out a shooting in the cattle market.

Her boyfriend, Andrew Sheridan, said he also saw the weapon.

The couple now say these statements made in March 2010 are untrue and that gardaí would not allow them to make any changes.

Today on the stand, Sgt Kevin Daly agreed the two witnesses expressed concern about their statements when he met with them in May last year.

However, he said that it was not because the contents were untrue but because the couple were in fear of giving evidence at the trial.