Law professor Diarmuid Phelan, who went on trial for murdering a trespasser on his farm but maintained from the outset that he had no intention of shooting him and had acted in self defence when he fired three warning shots, has been acquitted by a Central Criminal Court jury.
Mr Phelan walked from the Criminal Courts of Justice a free man this evening after the panel of nine men and three women returned their unanimous verdict to Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford.
The jurors had agreed with the defence case that Mr Phelan was entitled to defend himself when he came under threat on his own land.
They spent six hours and 51 minutes over two days considering their verdict following a ten-week trial.
Mr Phelan (56) made no reaction as the 12 jurors left the courtroom but was later seen embracing his family.
Members of victim Keith Conlon's family quickly left the courtroom as soon as the not guilty verdict was announced.
The jury rejected the State's case that when the third shot was fired by Mr Phelan, the gun was pointed in the direction of Mr Conlon, who was shot in the back of the head when it was argued he had turned away to leave.
It was in those circumstances, the prosecution said, that Mr Phelan intended to either kill or cause serious injury to Mr Conlon.
Instead the jurors accepted Mr Phelan's position that he was acting in self defence after two trespassers were "coming to fulfil the threats they had made" and that he was fearful and facing an "imminent attack" as the men closed in on him.
The jury had the option of returning three verdicts in relation to the murder charge against Phelan, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.
However, there was a choice of three paths to the panel's finding that Mr Phelan was not guilty and entitled to an acquittal.
Firstly, if the jury found Mr Phelan did intend to kill or seriously injure the trespasser, they had to consider the issue of self defence raised by the defendant.
If the jury considered a reasonable person would have used the degree of force employed by Mr Phelan in the circumstances in which the accused genuinely believed them to be, Mr Phelan was entitled to an acquittal on the basis of self defence.
Intent to kill
If the jury found the prosecution had not proven Mr Phelan had the intent to kill or cause serious injury and that he honestly believed he had to use force to protect himself and that the force used was reasonably necessary in the circumstances that Mr Phelan believed them to be, the verdict was not guilty of either murder or manslaughter.
An acquittal could also be recorded if the jury found that Mr Phelan did not intend to kill or seriously injure Mr Conlon, that he had an honest belief that force was necessary and that while the force he used was not reasonable, his actions were not objectively dangerous.
Mr Phelan (56) went on trial last October after he pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith 'Bono' Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on February 24th, 2022.
The defendant is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
It was the defence case that this was an unintended killing and what Mr Phelan had been trying to achieve in discharging the shots was not to strike Mr Conlon.
Following the unanimous verdict, Ms Justice Lankford thanked the jurors and exempted them from further jury service for life. "That does not mean you cannot serve but you do not have to," she added.
The presiding judge said it had been a very long and difficult case and that the jury had been very dedicated in their service. "Thank you very much and I hope all goes well with all of you," she concluded.
When the jury left the courtroom, Ms Justice Lankford turned to Mr Phelan, asking: "I take it there is nothing further against Mr Phelan?". She then said that Mr Phelan was "free to go".
Inside court Mr Phelan's family and supporters hugged him as he prepared to return home this evening after being cleared of the charge.
In his closing address, Mr Sean Guerin SC, defending, told the panel that trouble came "uninvited to the door" of Mr Phelan and none of what occurred was the defendant's creation. Counsel said the killing of trespasser Mr Conlon was "a tragedy and a grievous waste of human life" but it did not happen because of any crime committed by Mr Phelan.
The jury had heard that on the day in question three men - the deceased Keith Conlon, along with Kallum Coleman and Robin Duggan - had trespassed on a wooded area of Phelan's land while engaged in the illegal blood sport of badger baiting.
Mr Phelan told gardaí in his interviews that he became concerned about a lurcher dog running loose on his land towards his sheep.
When he got a view of the dog, he shot it with his Winchester rifle, whereupon he said three men immediately "exploded" from the woods and began threatening him.
Mr Phelan said he was shaking with fear and had "scrambled" up a bank to get away but when Mr Conlon and Mr Coleman kept coming he believed they were "coming to fulfil the threats they had made".
As they got closer, Mr Phelan shouted at the two trespassers on his farm to "get back" before he fired three shots from his Smith & Wesson revolver and said he was "stunned when one man went down".
Mr Conlon (36), from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident on February 22nd and died at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.
It was the defence contention that the third bullet had accidentally hit Mr Conlon through a combination of factors including an unintended deviation in the alignment of the gun as a result of the repeated firing under stress and Mr Conlon's movement uphill.
It was entirely possible, the defence argued, that the deceased had walked up the incline into a shot intended to clear his head. The defence also submitted that where Mr Conlon was stuck could have happened by him turning his head and not his body.
