Garda murder accused: I am the victim in all of this
Cross-examination will continue
A MAN accused of murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe has told his trial that he is a victim of the media and the gardaí, who he claimed ‘ganged up’ on him.
Denying any involvement in the robbery that led to Det Garda Donohoe being shot dead, Aaron Brady told the court he was targeted because he lied to gardaí about his movements.
But he insisted he lied to cover up his involvement in illegal diesel laundering and that his lies had nothing to do with the murder.
He further accepted that the first time the Director of Public Prosecutions was notified of his alibi was in December last year.
Mr Brady also said prosecution witness Molly Staunton was ‘mistaken’ when she said she heard Mr Brady admit to shooting a ‘cop’, and he dubbed another prosecution witness, Daniel Cahill, a ‘psychopathic, pathological liar’. Mr Cahill has told the trial that on three occasions while Mr Brady lived in New York he heard the latter admit to killing or shooting a garda in Ireland.
Mr Brady also called Garda Sergeant John Moroney a liar as he disputed Sgt Moroney’s testimony that he, Mr Brady, claimed to have no knowledge of the shooting when he was questioned by gardaí the day after it occurred.
Mr Brady, 29, from New Road, Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh, has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Adrian Donohoe who was then a member of An Garda Síochána on active duty on January 25, 2013, at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Co. Louth.
Mr Brady has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbing approximately €7,000 in cash and assorted cheques on the same date and at the same location.
Beginning his cross-examination, prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan asked the accused if he was ‘the victim in all of this’. Mr Brady replied: ‘I would say I am.’
When Mr Grehan asked if the media and gardaí ‘ganged up on you’, the accused replied: ‘Absolutely, no question.’
Counsel said: ‘You lie easily and repeatedly. Big lies and small lies.’
The accused responded: ‘I lied because I was involved in diesel laundering not because of the murder of Adrian Donohoe. That is the only lies I told. I’m on oath. I’m not lying now.’
He denied he ‘distorts bits of truth’ or that he takes ‘a little bit of truth and tweaks it to suit’ himself, or that he is ‘sculpting a story’ around his lies based on what he knows of the prosecution case.
Mr Brady accepted that nobody was with him in the yard to back up his alibi, but said there are others who knew what he was doing at that time.
Mr Grehan will continue his cross-examination today before Judge Michael White and a jury of six men and seven women.