Accused in garda killing a ‘skilled liar’ who ‘used shooting to curry inf luence’
‘Fled to all corners of the world’ ‘He does what clever liars do’
THE man accused of murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe ‘wore the shooting like a badge of honour’ when he moved to the US and believed he was beyond the law, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Lorcan Staines SC for the prosecution, in his closing speech yesterday, told the jury that the accused man, Aaron Brady, is a ‘skilled and practised liar’ who told a ‘litany of lies’ to gardaí and to the jury for his own advantage.
He said that when Mr Brady moved to America he used the shooting of Detective Donohoe to ‘intimidate and curry influence’ and talked about it in front of a number of people on different occasions, ‘sometimes crying, lamenting in drink or bragging with his chest puffed out’.
He said Mr Brady was confident that nobody would speak up when gardaí arrived in New York to investigate. Counsel added: ‘He was wrong about that. Not all the people he talked to about this were willing to turn the other way. Two came to give evidence.’
Mr Staines also described the deceased as a ‘good man, a good husband, father, brother son. He was a member of his community, he was a colleague’.
He said that when Mr Brady pulled the trigger, ‘he knew he was pulling that trigger at a member of An Garda Síochána’.
Mr Brady, 29, of 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, 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.
Mr Staines for the prosecution pointed to evidence that he said shows two associates of Mr Brady who can’t be identified, Suspect A and Suspect B, travelling to Clogherhead three days before events in Lordship to steal a Volkswagen Passat that was used in the robbery and fatal shooting.
He said the jury would have to believe that all the phones belonging to Mr Brady, Suspect A and Suspect B were inactive for ‘innocent reasons’ for more than two hours at a time that ‘coincides perfectly with the robbery at Lordship Credit Union’.
He suggested a series of phone calls between Mr Brady and Suspect B at relevant times would have to be further coincidence and it would be a coincidence that a BMW 5-series was seen passing an area close to where the Volkswagen was burned out shortly after the robbery. A further coincidence would be that Suspect A’s father’s car was seen travelling at speed close to Lordship shortly after the robbery.
Counsel asked the jury to consider the further coincidence that Mr Brady, Suspect A, Suspect B and Suspect A’s brother ‘fled to all corners of the world’ shortly after the shooting.
The motive for the robbery at Lordship, counsel said, was a ‘base criminal motive, the pursuit of money through violence’. He said Mr Brady was under money pressure in January 2013 because he needed to pay compensation arising out of a criminal damage charge to which he pleaded guilty and he wanted to buy a car for his then girlfriend Jessica King.
Mr Staines also pointed to Mr Brady’s alibi which, he said, was delivered to the prosecution in September 2019 and contained one line stating that the accused was at an address on Concession Road in south Armagh when the shooting occurred. Last December, after the trial was due to begin, Mr Brady sent a note to the prosecution giving a description of his movements and admitting that he had lied to gardaí in 2013 about his movements.
‘He is a skilled and practised liar and he does what clever liars do, takes real events and superimposes onto them falsities,’ Mr Staines said.
Michael O’Higgins, SC for the defence, will address the jury of six men and seven women in front of Judge Michael White on Monday.