‘One minute I’m looking at a car, the next I’m on the floor’

Before yesterday’s guilty plea, the Special Criminal Court had heard a number of days evidence in the case,as outlined below.

Road in Raheny with another man in the passenger seat. The witness said he had been previously tasked with trying to find an Audi car and saw such a vehicle ‘suspiciously parked’ on a high footpath at Lein Park. ‘It was half on the footpath and the driver’s door was slightly ajar,’ he said.

The court has heard that gardai became concerned with the possibility that a navy coloured Audi vehicle might be available for use in a criminal operation and a search had commenced in north Dublin for it.

Gda O’Leary testified that he returned to Lein Park the following day and searched the vehicle by gaining entry through the driver’s door. The witness said he observed a long-handled lighter in the centre console, a red petrol can behind the passenger seat in the footwell area and a few loose surgical gloves. Gda O’Leary said he also found a black handgun under the passenger seat with 12 rounds of ammunition within the magazine, which he removed to make the handgun safe.

Garda Phillip Byrne told Mr Gillane that he was tasked with putting together an operation in and around Pearse House in Dublin 2 on September 14. The witness agreed that this operation was concerned with the same person having an association with an address at Lein Road and it appeared that this person also stayed in Pearse House.

At 3 p.m. on September 14, Gda Byrne said he saw three men in a silver Toyota Avensis driving towards Hanover Street East. The witness said that one of the males, who he now knows to be Mr McDonnell, got out of the passenger side of the car and walked in the opposite direction. He observed the same car later drive to Lein Park and Mr McDonnell was in the back, said Gda Byrne. The Avensis car parked ‘nose to nose’ with the Audi car which was also parked up on Lein Road and the defendant got out of the vehicle. Gda Byrne said Mr McDonnell went to the front wheel of the Audi car and retrieved something from the area.

Garda Patrick Carey gave evidence that he observed Mr McDonnell go into the ‘K’ block of Pearse House on Hanover Street East at 2.30 p.m. on September 14.

Detective Sergeant John Keane testified that he had approached the driver’s door of the Audi car at Lein Park on

September 14, when Mr McDonnell got into it. The witness said he had his firearm drawn and identified himself to Mr McDonnell as an armed garda before he removed him from the car and put him on the ground.

‘There were a number of items on his lap that fell to the ground such as a car key, two dark coloured baseball hats, two sets of gloves and two balaclavas,’ he said.

Opening the prosecution’s case the previous day, Mr Gillane told the threejudge court that a garda surveillance operation covering the Coolock area of north Dublin commenced on September 11, 2019 under the direction of Detective Inspector Noel Browne of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau. The operation culminated three days later. Mr Gillane said that the non-jury court will be satisfied that a combination of the circumstances in the case will conclude that the Audi was parked up at Lein Park for the purpose of its deployment in a criminal enterprise and the only use for the firearm was to endanger life.

No evidence was heard on Wednesday.

Garda Eoin Byrne told prosecution counsel, Gerardine Small BL, on Thursday that he interviewed Mr McDonnell at Raheny Garda Station on September 14 following his arrest. The defendant told Gda Byrne that he was originally from Crumlin but had moved to Wexford a few months previously to rent an apartment with his daughter. He said he did not work and owned a Toyota RAV-4.

Mr McDonnell said he had come to Dublin that day to look at a few cars as his Toyota RAV-4 was ‘on the way out’. The accused said he had driven straight from New Ross to Ballyfermot and left his car at Mr Price. Mr McDonnell said he went to look at a dark-coloured Audi car after he left Ballyfermot. ‘One minute I’m looking at a car, next thing I’m lying on the floor covered in blood,’ he told gardai.

Mr McDonnell explained that he had not done anything wrong and was only looking at cars saying: ‘This is nothing to do with me.’

Gardaí put it to the accused that he was dragged out of an Audi car earlier that day. In reply, Mr McDonnell said that he wanted to get a look at the car and after that he knew nothing. ‘If you drive down the Kylemore Road, you will see my car,’ he said.

In his second interview, Detective Garda David McGinley gave evidence that he showed Mr McDonnell the items that were found in the car when he was arrested at Lein Park, including two black balaclavas, a red petrol can and a baseball cap. Mr McDonnell told gardaí that the car keys found on him were for his Toyota RAV-4.

Det Gda McGinley put it to Mr McDonnell during the interview that he was arrested at Lein Park in Harmonstown and he [Mr McDonnell] said he had parked his car on the Kylemore Road. The detective asked the accused what had happened between this. ‘I don’t understand what I’m being dragged into,’ he replied. The accused said he was supposed to meet a man at Mr Price but the person had not shown up.

Earlier, Detective Inspector Noel Browne of the National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau told prosecution counsel, Sean Gillane SC, that he directed the search of an Audi vehicle on Lein Park on September 12.

Under cross-examination, Det Insp Browne agreed with defence counsel Michael Bowman SC, for Mr McDonnell, that the driver’s door to the vehicle was partly ajar so entry could be gained without suspicion. He further agreed that two gardaí were assigned to search the vehicle and a firearm was retrieved.

On Friday, Detective Garda Ronan Doolan told prosecution counsel, Gerardine Small BL, that he interviewed Mr McDonnell at Raheny Garda Station on September 16. The court has heard that the accused was arrested two days previously.

The court heard that in Mr McDonnell’s third interview the gardai invoked Sections 18, 19 and 19(a) of the Criminal Justice Act 1984, where a court may draw inferences from one’s failure or refusal to account for certain matters.

Det Gda Doolan asked Mr McDonnell to account for the pistol found at Lein Park. The accused man replied that he had never seen it before.

When asked to account for a black

Nokia and Huawei mobile phone, Mr McDonnell said they belonged to him. The accused man told gardaí that a New York Yankees baseball cap did not belong to him nor two black balaclavas saying: ‘It’s not mine, I’ve never seen it before.’ He also said a black baseball cap and gloves were not his and he had never seen them before.

In relation to an Audi key found in the accused’s possession, he said: ‘It doesn’t belong to me.’

Mr McDonnell told gardaí that he owned clothing found on the passenger seat. However, he said the petrol can found inside the Audi car was not his and he had never seen it before.

Asked by gardaí to account for his presence inside the Audi car at Lein Park on September 14, Mr McDonnell said he was going to buy a car.

Following the conclusion of the third interview, Mr McDonnell told gardai: ‘I know nothing about any property in a car. I know nothing about any firearm. I know nothing about any crime. I’m innocent of any crime.’

Detective Garda Peter Gilligan told prosecution counsel, Sean Gillane SC, that he had examined three mobile phone handsets, which had been seized by gardaí.

The first Nokia mobile phone was seized from the accused man and it had been activated on September 11, 2019. It had two contacts stored on it, the first contact was saved under the letter ‘S’ and the second contact was saved under the letter ‘J’. Both of these contact numbers were associated with the second and third Nokia mobile phones found in a Toyota Avensis car at Lein Park on September 14. Both phones were activated on August 21, 2019.

The second and third Nokia mobile phones found in the Avensis had the phone number from the first Nokia phone, which had been seized from Mr McDonnell, stored in their contacts under the name ‘Wex’, said the detective.

The witness told Mr Gillane that a fourth Aquaris phone had been seized from the footwell of the Toyota Avensis. It had a Dutch SIM card, the applications on the phone did not contain any content and it booted up into an encrypted partition, he said.

The detective said that the Huawei mobile phone was registered to Mr McDonnell.