Garda murder accused Stephen Silver told officers during interviews held the day after the shooting that Detective Garda Colm Horkan was “fumbling around like a f**king eejit” with his gun.
The accused man told detectives: "Now he’s dead and I’m alive and you’re making a huge f**king deal out of it.”
The accused told detectives that he acted in self-defence after being attacked by a man he did not know. He said it wasn’t fair that he was just going for a pizza with a friend when he was “attacked by one of your gardaí with a gun. Do you not think there is a little problem here? A man going to Apache Pizza is terrorised when all he wants is a f**king pizza.”
He said that he had been put in a cell because “one of your guys tried to shoot me” and asked, “Why are you terrorising me?”
Mr Silver (46), a motorbike mechanic from Aughavard, Foxford, Co Mayo has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Det Garda Horkan knowing or being reckless as to whether he was a member of An Garda Siochana acting in accordance with his duty. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon on June 17th 2020.
The jury in his trial on Thursday watched DVD recordings of two interviews Mr Silver gave to Detective Sgt Brian Hanley and Detective Garda Paddy Farrell of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) at Castlerea Garda Station on June 18th, one day after the fatal shooting.
Mr Silver told the detectives that during the confrontation Gda Horkan told him he was a garda but, the accused added: “I don’t give a s**t, a man gets out of a car and says something to me, I have to suspect he is telling lies, with no identification, driving a f**king family saloon car. How did I know who he was?”
He said he saw the detective's gun but added: “I didn’t know he didn’t know how to use it.”
He said he had "done nothing wrong, all I did was defend myself against an armed assailant. If that's my crime, that's my crime. I defended myself against an armed assailant on my way to Apache Pizza. If I'm not allowed to do that, what am I allowed to do? I'm beyond annoyed."
He added: “One of your guys died, accept it and move on. There’s no case to solve. Self-defence and that’s it.”
At one point in the interview he told gardaí that Gda Horkan “shot himself” with his own gun and claimed that he, Mr Silver, was “set up”.
When detectives later asked Mr Silver if he killed Gda Horkan, the accused replied: "I did not kill him. He died at his own hand with his own gun. The bullets killed him. They were his own bullets."
He said he was defending himself and described Gda Horkan as the aggressor.
Mr Silver also complained that gardaí were breaching his human rights by leaving him waiting for a glass of water in his cell and by refusing to allow him to wear his glasses in his cell. He said he had been kept awake for over 30 hours, was sleep-deprived and stressed. He complained about the “crap” food he had been given. “I’ve been left here with no food, only a breakfast roll, where’s the justice in that?” he said.
He told gardaí that he has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and had received no medication while being “stressed out” by gardaí. He added that he had not taken his medication since the previous September, saying he didn’t need to “because there was nobody annoying the s**t out of me”.
In his second interview when gardai later put it to him that he had shot Gda Horkan while the garda was on the ground, Mr Silver said the detectives were wrong.
One of the interviewers said that previously during his interviews Mr Silver had said that he, Mr Silver, was "standing and he [Gda Horkan] was down and it was bang bang bang, in case he got up. Am I wrong?”
Mr Silver responded: “Yes you are.”
The garda told him, “It’s all recorded, every sound is recorded on the DVD.”
The trial continues tomorrow in front of Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven men and five women.
