Teenager was pale and upset after alleged murder, garda tells court

By Eoin Reynolds

A teenager accused of murder was pale, upset and showing signs of anguish when gardaí interviewed him hours after the deceased was beaten to death on a Dublin street, a murder trial has heard.

Ryan Bradley was 17 when a gunman fired two shots at his home and then sped off in a white van.

The prosecution alleges that Ryan, his father, and two brothers chased the shooter for several kilometres before catching him and beating him to death.

Paul Bradley (54) and his sons Jason (20), Dean (24), and Ryan (18), of Liscarne Gardens, Dublin 22, have all pleaded not guilty to the murder of Neil Reilly (36) at Esker Glebe in Lucan, Dublin on January 18, 2017.

Detective sergeant Gordon Woulfe told prosecuting counsel Paul Murray SC that he arrived at the Bradley home at about 4.30am.

Within half an hour Dean Bradley arrived at the house driving a dark-coloured BMW with his younger brother Ryan in the passenger seat.

Det Sgt Woulfe noticed a small amount of blood on Ryan's tracksuit bottoms. Ryan told him the blood came from his brother Jason, who he said had cut his hand at 3pm that day.

Gardaí seized the tracksuit bottoms and BMW as evidence.

Dean and Ryan Bradley then went voluntarily to Ronanstown Garda station to give statements.

Dean Bradley told gardaí that he was watching television in his room with his girlfriend when he heard wheels spinning and then two "very loud" gunshots.

He heard his dad shouting and when he looked outside he saw a white van driving off.

He put on his shorts and a grey top and went out the front door.

It all felt in slow motion.

With Ryan in the passenger seat he drove around for a while but saw nothing, he said, so he returned home to find gardaí already there having responded to reports of shots being fired.

Ryan Bradley told gardaí that he woke up to screaming and shouting and ran downstairs.

His dad was shouting "youse bastards" and Ryan ran outside and down the road before being picked up by his brother Dean.

They drove around but Ryan said his mind was blank and he was shaking. He couldn't remember where they went and he told gardai he did not know who shot at their home.

He added that he thought the person had targetted the wrong house.

Det Sgt Woulfe agreed with Ryan's defence counsel Caroline Biggs SC that Ryan has no previous convictions and that he was pale and upset.

"I could see something bad had happened," he said, adding that his body language suggested that he was "in anguish".

Garda Rachel O'Malley of the Garda Technical Bureau told Mr Murray that she identified a fingerprint belonging to the deceased in a Mazda car found in the road facing in the wrong direction near where Mr Reilly was found injured and dying.

She also found a finger print matching Mr Reilly's son Dean on a mobile phone found in the car and a number of fingerprints belonging to another man in the car.

Justice Paul Coffey told the jury of six men and six women that a legal issue must be dealt with in their absence and asked them to return on Tuesday.