The Special Criminal Court has ruled that a garda may narrate CCTV footage that shows a gunman walking into a Dublin steakhouse where he shot a man dead before being disarmed and beaten to death.
Three men are on trial at the three-judge, non-jury court accused of murdering the gunman, Tristan Sherry, while three others, including the son of the man Sherry shot dead, are accused of violent disorder.
All the accused deny the charges.
In her opening speech this week, prosecution counsel Fiona Murphy SC said that Jason Hennessy Snr and a group of people had gathered in the busy Browne's Steakhouse for Christmas Eve.
Sherry and a second man entered with their faces covered and hoods up and moved towards the party before Sherry shot and fatally wounded Mr Hennessy Snr.
Ms Murphy said Sherry was promptly disarmed and attacked by a group using "savage levels of violence" involving kicking, stamping and striking with various objects including chairs.
Defence lawyers asked the court to rule that, while introducing the CCTV footage into evidence, Garda Dermot Sloane should not be allowed to narrate the footage.
They said that the narrative offered by the garda was unnecessary and could prejudice the court's interpretation of what they can see with their own eyes.
In Friday's ruling, presiding judge Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said the purpose of the narrative is to draw the court's attention to potentially relevant aspects of the footage.
Gda Sloane has watched the CCTV many times and compiled montages purporting to show the movements of each of the accused.
Mr Justice Naidoo said the garda's familiarity with the footage makes him an "ad hoc expert" and he is therefore entitled to offer a descriptive narrative.
Nothing the garda says will determine any issue in the trial, Mr Justice Naidoo said, as it is up to the three judges to decide the facts of the case.
The court, he said, will decide the meaning or relevance of any piece of evidence and not the garda witness.
Mr Justice Naidoo adjourned the trial to Monday after the parties asked for time to consider any edits that might be made to the garda's narrative before the court hears it.
