A German student has told a murder trial that she doubts she will "ever find the words to describe the terror" she felt when she saw a law professor shoot a man in the back on her third day in Ireland.
The agricultural worker also said that after leading barrister Diarmuid Phelan fired a shot in the air, the deceased man Keith Conlon and his friend "immediately, in that very second, turned around and started running away."
She added: "Just a few seconds after that, Diarmuid shot one of the guys in the back and he then immediately fell to the ground."
Under cross-examination, Ms Hannah Felgner told Sean Guerin SC, defending, that the two unarmed intruders on the farmland "didn't seem a danger to any people there" and "didn't seem any danger" to her.
The witness said the farmer had fired the gunshots "out of nowhere" and it came as a "complete surprise to her". She described the discharging of the three shots from the revolver by Mr Phelan as "unexpected and unpredictable".
Ultimately, she denied being mistaken in her recollection of seeing the two men running away when the third, fatal shot was fired.
Mr Phelan (56), with an address at Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 has pleaded not guilty to murdering Keith Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, on February 24th, 2022.
Mr Phelan is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove Farm, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
Ms Felgner told Roisin Lacey SC, prosecuting, that she came to Ireland to learn English and explore a new culture by working on farms as a "wwoofer" (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) or farm hand in return for accommodation and three meals per day. She had arranged to work on Mr Phelan's farm in Tallaght where she shared a house with three other wwoofers.
On her second day working on the farm, she was helping Mr Phelan and the other farmhands to cut back an overgrown bush.
The mood was "relaxed", she said, until she heard a dog barking in the distance. Mr Phelan's sheepdog, which was tied to a leash, became nervous and unsettled.
Mr Phelan, who was carrying a long gun, and one of the wwoofers, a Frenchman named Julian Roudaut, walked off in the direction of the barking.
Ms Felgner and the others kept working but "suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard a loud noise that was definitely a gunshot. Shortly after that there were loud voices, men kind of screaming and yelling, sounding very angry and upset.
The trial has previously heard that Mr Phelan had shot a dog belonging to Mr Conlon's friend.
The witness saw Mr Phelan and Mr Roudaut emerge from the bushes followed shortly afterwards by Mr Conlon and a second man "walking towards us, they were screaming and yelling".
She heard them say that they were going to call the police and "going to get you charged for that, why would you do that?"
Ms Felgner said she heard Mr Phelan calmly repeating: "Go ahead, call the police, just keep your distance."
The men kept walking towards Mr Phelan, she said, and were still yelling. "It was a verbal argument," she said. "They were just very upset, I guess."
She said she didn't feel threatened because it was "a purely verbal conflict" and they were "yelling at Diarmuid, not at me."
She added: "As they kept walking towards Diarmuid, as they were about two metres away from him, he [Mr Phelan], out of nowhere pulled out a small gun and shot into the air, screaming very loudly, "keep your distance"."
She said Mr Phelan's tone changed suddenly, that he "screamed very aggressively and very loudly" as he shot into the air and he was "kind of threatening".
When Mr Phelan fired, Ms Felgner said the two men "immediately, in that very second, turned around and started running away... Just a few seconds after that Diarmuid shot one of the guys into the back and he then immediately fell to the ground while the other man kept running away."
She saw the man fall "straight forward, face first" into a bunker that was part of the old golf course. Ms Felgner said she thought it wasn't real, that the gun was a fake and that the man was "faking" when he fell. "You just don't expect that to happen," she said.
Mr Phelan, she said, "ran off" and the "wwoofers" got on the ground as they were "fearful and expecting there to be more shots fired". After a couple of seconds Ms Felgner got up and walked into the bunker. "That's the moment I realised it was a real gun. I saw blood coming from the back of his head."
Mr Conlon had turned over onto his back and was still conscious with his eyes open, but he didn't talk. He held out his phone in what Ms Felgner presumed was a plea to call an ambulance. She took out her own phone and dialled 999.
When Ms Lacey asked how she felt at that time, Ms Felgner replied: "I doubt I will ever find the sufficient words to describe the terror of that feeling. There was a lot of fear, it's not an everyday situation. I was fearful and probably stressed and very overwhelmed."
Under cross-examination, Sean Guerin SC, defending, put it to Ms Felgner that she had said in her direct examination that she didn't feel personally threatened or endangered at any point. The barrister said he wanted to suggest to the witness that she could see very clearly that the person they were coming for was Mr Phelan and no one else.
In reply, Ms Felgner said this wasn't the particular reason she didn't feel threatened. "These two guys didn't seem a danger to any people there. It was a verbal conflict, they expressed they were upset. I didn't feel they about to do anything to endanger or threaten me. It's just because these guys in general didn't seem any danger to me".
The witness agreed with counsel that it was clear to her that the men were coming for Mr Phelan.
"They closed the difference when they first came out of the trees to where Mr Phelan was very quickly?" asked Mr Guerin. "I suppose they were walking kind of quickly, yes, wasn't strolling," Ms Felgner said. She agreed that the men were "determined to get to him".
She also agreed that when Mr Phelan fired the first shot the intruders were within two metres of him and were still "advancing" in a "determined way towards" the accused.
Asked whether she thought it would have become a physical incident up to the point when the shots were fired, she replied: "No, the fact the shots fired was to me out of nowhere, unexpected and unpredictable. I didn't expect this to turn into a physical confrontation at any point, why the gunshot was a complete surprise to me," she said.
Mr Guerin suggested to the witness that she was quite young, 19 years of age at the time, had just arrived in the country and knew nothing of the people, how they relate to each other and knew nothing of the area. "No," she replied.
The trial continues on Monday before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford and a jury of nine men and three women.
