The judge presiding over the trial of law professor Diarmuid Phelan, who denies murdering a trespasser on his farm in Tallaght, has resumed delivering her charge to the jury.
Presiding judge Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford continued her charge to the jurors for a fifth day on Monday after the Central Criminal Court trial broke on December 12th due to juror unavailability and the case running over its allotted time.
The judge had previously told the jury in week nine of the trial that they would be accommodated as they were initially told the case would last six weeks.
Prior to Christmas, the judge had spent four days delivering her charge and summarising the evidence in the case.
Ms Justice Lankford had told the jurors on December 12th that because they "were breaking for a long period" she would leave two matters over until they returned to the Central Criminal Court on December 30th; a summary of the prosecution and defence cases and a document setting out "the legal questions" they must ask themselves, which would "give them a path to follow to come to the verdict".
When the panel of nine men and three women returned to the courtroom on Monday in week ten of the trial two notes were handed up to the judge, which set out two jurors' difficulties in attending court on certain dates going forward. The note was not read to the courtroom and only passed down to counsel.
Addressing the notes, Ms Justice Lankford told the jurors that they would continue and "see how we go". "If difficulties arise we will deal with them later," she added.
The judge then began resuming her charge to the jury and has so far summarised the prosecution's closing speech. She will give a summary of the defence closing address after lunchtime.
Recapping the prosecution speech given by Ms Roisin Lacey SC, the judge said today that the jury had to consider whether the discharging of the loaded revolver was dangerous. "It is not a question of what ammunition was in the gun, that is not an issue relevant to your assessment of Mr Phelan's conduct on the day," she added.
She said Mr Phelan was aware that pest-shot/crow-shot shouldn't be pointed at someone as it would do harm to them. She reminded the jury that ballistic expert Detective Garda Seamus O'Donnell had testified that in his view pest control ammunition was lethal at short distances.
The leading barrister had told a sergeant at the scene that the three spent rounds in the Smith & Wesson revolver which had been fired at Mr Conlon were "possibly crow-shot" for shooting pests.
Mr Phelan (56), has 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 accused man is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
Previously in her charge on the law, the judge had told the jury they must consider whether the State has proven it was not reasonably possible that Mr Phelan unintentionally hit a trespasser on his farm with a third shot from his revolver.
Ms Justice Lankford has also told the jury that if they found Mr Phelan did intend to kill or seriously injure the trespasser, they must consider the issue of self defence raised by the defendant.
She has told the panel that there were three verdicts they could return in relation to the murder charge against Mr Phelan, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.
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 hunting foxes or badgers.
Mr Phelan told gardai in his interviews that he became concerned about a 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 the two men kept coming he believed they were "coming to fulfil the threats they had made".
As they got closer, Mr Phelan shouted at two of the unarmed 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".
It is the State's case that two of the three shots were fired into the air, while the third connected with Mr Conlon.
It is also the prosecution's case that when the third shot was fired by Mr Phelan, the gun was pointed in the direction of the deceased who was shot in the back of the head when he had turned away to leave. It is in those circumstances, the prosecution say, that the accused intended to kill or cause serious injury to Mr Conlon.
It is the defence's position that Mr Phelan accidentally hit Mr Conlon while firing three "warning shots".
