Barrister fired three shots at trespassers, trial hears

A former farm worker has told the Central Criminal Court that barrister and farmer Diarmuid Phelan took a pistol out of his pocket and fired three shots, after shouting at two trespassers who were coming towards him to leave.

The worker said the accused fired three shots in quick succession, two in the air and a third towards one of the men who then fell on the ground.

Mr Phelan, 56, is also a law lecturer. He is accused of murdering 35-year-old Keith Conlon at Hazelgrove Farm, Tallaght in Dublin in February 2022.

Mr Phelan denies murder and says Mr Conlon was shot by accident after he fired his gun in self defence.

The prosecution says he intended to kill or cause serious injury.

The trial heard evidence via video link from French national Pierre Godreu who worked on Mr Phelan's farm in February 2022 when he was a 23-year-old engineering student.

Mr Godreu said he had come to do an internship on the farm, as he had a friend who had worked there. A number of other young people from other countries also worked on the farm and they were known as "wwoofers".

On the morning of 22 February 2022, he said he met Mr Phelan in the farmhouse kitchen. That morning, he was responsible for feeding the animals and was then involved in preparing the fields for the imminent arrival of lambs.

Mr Godreu told the court he was working with a strimmer near the entrance gate, cutting the long grass and wearing ear protectors. However, he said at one point he looked up and saw two of the female farm workers who looked "concerned".

When he took off his headphones, he heard two people fighting. He then saw Mr Phelan and another farm worker, called Julien, emerging from a wooded area. He said the accused was carrying a rifle, which Mr Godreu said Mr Phelan used to protect himself against animals.

Mr Godreu said Mr Phelan and Julien were returning towards the workers and he saw two other men coming out of the woods following them. They were around 30 years old, he said, wearing clothes for hunting.

Mr Godreu told the court there was a verbal confrontation between the two men and Mr Phelan during which the accused told them to "go, go, get out get out". However, he said the two strangers did not leave and kept advancing.

At this stage, he said, Mr Phelan took another gun - a pistol - out of his pocket and shot in the air twice. He said there was a third shot towards one of the trespassers and, after this, one of the men fell on the ground and the other ran away. He said all three shots were fired "pretty quickly".

Mr Godreu said he and the other workers were shocked. Mr Phelan asked them to call an ambulance and then went back to the farmhouse on a golf buggy to get a first aid kit.

He said the man who had fallen was injured and asking for help but the workers were scared as they thought the other man would come back. He said Mr Phelan returned with the first aid kid and was trying to help the injured man.

Mr Godreu told the jury that he had seen the rifle before but had not seen the other gun although he knew Mr Phelan had other guns.

Under cross-examination, from defence counsel Michael Bowman, Mr Godreu agreed that he and the other workers had been told to work in pairs and take walkie talkies with them which they were to use to communicate if there was any trouble or intruders.

He agreed that when he saw the faces of the two female farm workers, he knew something had happened and he could see they were panicking.

Mr Godreu said that when he saw Mr Phelan and Julien, Julien was panicked and his face was very "closed". Asked if Mr Phelan looked frightened, he said: "No, he was really p**sed off."

Mr Godreu said the other two men were following Mr Phelan and Julien up the field and were gaining on them because they were really angry too.

He said he did not see Mr Phelan on the phone. Although Mr Bowman put it to him that some of the conversation between the men had been recorded on a telephone call lasting more than two minutes, made by Mr Phelan to gardaí.

Mr Bowman said Mr Phelan had been recorded saying "keep your distance, go back down please, go down now." Mr Godreu agreed that the men kept coming.

He said that when the man fell, after Mr Phelan fired the third shot, he thought he was mimicking falling down. He realised the man had been shot when he did not come back up and called for help. He said he had thought the gun was "fake - not something for killing".

He agreed with Mr Bowman that he did not know at this stage what had happened in the wooded area, he did not know how many people were in the woods, if there had been more than two people or where others may have been. He also agreed he did not know about any threats made by any of the men to Diarmuid Phelan.

Asked if he had ever been the subject of a violent encounter with trespassers, Mr Godreu said he had never been confronted like that. Mr Bowman put it to the witness that no one had ever threatened to kill for giving evidence in court as was "Mr Phelan’s direct experience".

Mr Godreu said Mr Phelan had cameras and barbed wire on the farm but he did not know men with iron bars had previously come in and broken the cameras. He said Mr Phelan had not wanted the workers to speak about the farm to other people.

He agreed that what had happened on 22 February was a frightening experience for everybody and said it had "really darkened" his experience living in Ireland.

Garda experts give evidence to trial

Earlier, the court heard evidence from garda mapping expert Padraig Coone and garda photographer Mairead Crowley.

Detective Garda Coone described the differences in height between various parts of the ground on the farm, which was previously a golf course.

Garda Crowley described a number of items of clothing and medical paraphernalia which were in the bunker into which Mr Conlon had fallen after being shot. She also described taking photographs of the wooded area in which a dog which was with Mr Conlon and two other men had been shot by Mr Phelan.

The jury was told Mr Conlon, his friend Kalum Coleman, and a third man were trespassing on the land to engage in a type of fox hunting called fox bolting where a dog is sent down a hole after a fox and then both are dug out.

The jury was shown photographs of a number of implements including shovels, clippers, hoes, a handsaw and a wire cutter or bolt cutter which were found in the area beside a recently dug hole. There was also a photograph of a dog lead attached to a tree.

Gda Crowley also took photographs inside the farmhouse. The jury was shown pictures of a fridge in the house. There were copies of a laminated document attached to the fridge which she agreed appeared to be "some sort of emergency protocol" giving the workers advice on what to do if there were intruders on the farm.

The trial will continue tomorrow.