Court hears evidence from Credit Union staff

FOOTAGE of the moment when Det. Garda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead in the car park of Bellurgan credit union during an armed robbery was shown to the jury sitting in the trial of Aaron Brady.

Detective Garda Gareth Kenna said the footage shows a vehicle blocking the exit to the credit union car park while four men emerge. One of them, he said, is carrying what seems to be a shotgun and, ‘appears to recoil and appears almost to hit the ground.’

It is the prosecution’s case that Detective Sergeant Adrian Donohoe died from a single shotgun blast.

Det Gda Kenna told prosecuting counsel Lorcan Staines SC that he compiled CCTV footage for the investigation into Det Gda Donohoe’s death.

Showing the jury footage from the Lordship Credit Union on January 25, 2013, he described two cars, a Nissan Qashqai and an unmarked garda patrol car, entering the car park at 9.25pm. A man came out of the credit union and went to a Mazda car while the Nissan and the garda car moved towards the exit.

He said: ‘You can see a vehicle has arrived on the road blocking the car park exit just as the Nissan Qashqai arrived at the car park exit.’

As the garda car followed behind, Det Gda Kenna said two people can be seen running towards the garda car while two other people could be seen going to the other cars.

He said: ‘ The first person has what appears to be a shotgun. It is fully extended. This individual appears to recoil and appears almost to hit the ground.’

He continued that the four people then appeared to leave the car park before the vehicle blocking the exit drove off in the direction of Dundalk. The witness confirmed that the length of time from when the vehicle pulled up to block the exit to when it pulled off was 58 seconds.

The jury also heard from employees of credit unions in Cooley, Omeath and Carlingford who were working that night.

The court was told the amount from the three Credit Unions totaled e27,375. It was put in a bag at Cooley Credit Union and given to a member of staff who then left with a garda patrol car to go to Lordship Credit Union.