State Pathologist gives evidence at Phelan murder trial

A State Pathologist has told a murder trial jury that she retrieved a deformed lead projectile from the head of a trespasser who was shot dead on a law professor's farm.

The jury also heard from the expert witness that the absence of soot and powder tattooing around the bullet's entry hole indicated that there was a distance of greater than a metre between the victim and the shooter when the gun was fired.

Evidence has been given that leading barrister Diarmuid Phelan had shouted at two trespassers on his farm to "get back" before he fired three shots from his Smith & Wesson revolver.

It is the State's case that two of the three shots were fired into the air and the third shot connected with Keith Conlon.

In her opening speech, Roisin Lacey SC said the prosecution's case is that when the third shot was fired, 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.

Mr Phelan, 56, has pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith Conlon, 36, at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on 24 February 2022.

The accused man is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.

Mr Conlon, from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident on 22 February and died at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.

Witness Stephen Cole, a technical director of Acume Forensic, today told Ms Lacey, prosecuting, that he had been supplied with the deceased's postmortem report, and he had produced a 3D graphic package to display a gunshot wound.

Under cross-examination, the witness agreed with Sean Guerin SC, defending, that his graphics would aid the jury in understanding where the injury was located and how it related to the internal anatomy of the head.

"You make no effort to represent how the body would appear in movement in a dynamic real-life situation?" asked Mr Guerin, which the witness agreed with.

The next witness, State pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers told Ms Lacey that she carried out a postmortem on Mr Conlon at Dublin District Mortuary on 25 February, 2022.

She said she was aware the deceased had received a gunshot wound to the head and had been brought to Tallaght Hospital, where he was placed on life support.

The expert witness was informed that Mr Conlon had been pronounced dead at 3.15pm on 24 February at Tallaght Hospital.

She testified that a CT scan of the brain showed a complete fracture of the right parietal bone extending towards the front and across the coronal suture of the brain, where the front and parietal bone connect.

The witness said the scan showed multiple tiny metallic fragments throughout the trajectory of the bullet in the brain matter on the right parietal and right frontal bones.

She said inside the brain tissue was a haemorrhaging track where the bullet had gone through.

In her evidence, the witness said Mr Conlon weighed 67kgs and was five foot 5 or 6 inches in height. There was a plaster on the back of his head covering the gunshot wound. She said the entry wound of the gunshot was located 3cm behind Mr Conlon's right ear and 5cm above that.

The gunshot wound was at the level of 1.64cm above the unshod heel. There was an area of purple bruising below the entrance wound and the track wound had penetrated the scalp.

She said a deformed lead projectile measuring .8cm had been retrieved from the deceased's head.

Dr Okkers said the projectile went from back to front within the skull cavity, slightly upwards and to the left and then towards the frontal lobe area of the skull.

Asked whether it was a "distant" gunshot, the witness said there was no powder tattooing or soot, and the distance had been greater than one metre.

There was bruising above the right ear and behind the head and neck. She said the brain was quite swollen from the injury and it was heavy.

Dr Okkers will continue to give her evidence tomorrow.

The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford and a jury of nine men and three women.