BRADY’S ‘RANT OVER MURDER OF COP’
VIDEO LINK WITNESS’ EVIDENCE INTERRUPTED
The man accused of murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe said he had to ‘carry around the guilt of having murdered a cop in Ireland,’ a witness has told his murder trial.
Molly Staunton (24) said in her direct evidence that the accused man Aaron Brady also claimed during a drunken ‘rant’ in an apartment in New York four years ago to be ‘ the most feared man in Ireland’.
Giving her evidence via video link from her home in New York, Ms. Staunton told the Central Criminal Court trial that in July 2016 Aaron Brady was ‘ranting’ when he said ‘ That he had murdered someone in Ireland and he had to carry around the guilt of having murdered a cop in Ireland.’
She added: ‘He said that he was in fear of the cops coming to the apartment because he shot a cop in Ireland.’
The witness was giving her second day of evidence in the trial of Aaron Brady who denies murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in Lordship in January 2013.
When Ms Staunton was being questioned about what Mr Brady said in her presence, she was interrupted by a male, who could be heard saying, ‘put a stop to it, you can stop it right now, no more testimony.’ She later resumed giving evidence.
THE man accused of murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe said he had to ‘carry around the guilt of having murdered a cop in Ireland,’ a witness has told his murder trial.
Molly Staunton said in her direct evidence that the accused man Aaron Brady also claimed during a drunken ‘rant’ to be ‘ the most feared man in Ireland’. However, under cross examination defence counsel Fiona Murphy SC put it to Ms Staunton that the accused was concerned and upset that gardai were looking for him in relation to the shooting but that he never made any admission to having carried out the shooting of Det Gda Donohoe. The witness replied: ‘ That’s correct.’
Giving her evidence via video link from her home in New York, Molly Staunton (24) told the Central Criminal Court trial that in July 2016 Aaron Brady lived with her then boyfriend and another man in an apartment in New York. She remembered one evening Mr Brady came out of his bedroom, she thought he had been drinking. He was distressed and ‘ranting’ about wanting to be a good father, she said.
When Brendan Grehan SC for the prosecution asked what Aaron Brady said, Ms Staunton replied: ‘ That he had murdered someone in Ireland and he had to carry around the guilt of having murdered a cop in Ireland.’
She later said that Mr Brady was, ‘intoxicated and was kind of going kind of crazy, crying, going on like a huge rant.’
She added: ‘He said that he was in fear of the cops coming to the apartment because he shot a cop in Ireland and was worried he did not have enough money to take care of his son that he was going to be having and that he was the most feared man in Ireland.’
Ms Staunton said he was worried that he wasn’t earning enough money working in construction. She described how one of the other men in the apartment tried to calm him down and ‘eventually he went back into his bedroom.’ She said this happened only once when she was there and that she thought Mr Brady was ‘fine, ok, I got on with him fine’. Later that summer the three men moved out of the apartment on 1st Avenue and she moved in with her boyfriend while Mr Brady moved in with his girlfriend. She didn’t see Mr Brady again after that.
Under cross examination Ms Murphy said that her client denies making any admission to Ms Staunton or anyone else because he did not carry out the shooting. Counsel put it to the witness that Mr Brady did not say he ‘ killed a cop’ but was upset because gardai were looking for him in relation to the killing. The witness replied: ‘Yes, that was part of the reason he was upset.’
Ms Murphy continued that Irish people wouldn’t use the word ‘ cop’ and suggested that he hadn’t said he was involved in a shooting and wasn’t making an admission. Ms Staunton agreed and said that most of what she had heard came from the other two men in the apartment.
Ms Murphy said her client was worried because police were looking for him, ‘ but he didn’t make any admission to shooting a garda’. Ms Staunton replied, ‘No, he did not’.
Counsel suggested her client was upset because ‘ he was being sought by gardai for the shooting.’ The witness agreed.
When Ms Murphy said: ‘ He never made any admission to having carried out that shooting,’ the witness replied: ‘ That’s correct.’
Continuing her evidence by video link from her New York home, lasd Friday Ms Staunton was interrupted by an unseen man who told her: “Put a stop to it. You can stop it right now. No more testimony.”
Molly Staunton (24) was giving her second day of evidence in the trial of Aaron Brady who denies murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in 2013.
When Ms Staunton was being questioned by prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan SC about what Mr Brady said in her presence at a house in June or July 2016 Ms Staunton was about to reply when she turned to someone behind her camera and said: ‘ can you leave?’
A male voice could be heard saying, ‘You fuck off ’ and then ‘put a stop to it, you can stop it right now, no more testimony.’
The camera went down and the feed appeared to be cut off before Mr Justice Michael White asked the jury of six men and seven women to leave the court.
When the jury returned Ms Staunton told Mr Grehan that she had been interrupted but her apartment is now empty and she was happy to proceed.
Mr Grehan again asked her what she remembered Mr Brady saying one evening at an apartment in June or July 2016. She told him that Mr Brady said he wanted to be a good father to his son, that there were ‘cops looking for him and possibly raiding the apartment.’
She added: ‘As far as him killing a cop, I can’t say he admitted to it.’ She said she was sorry and she knows she said it in her statement but added: ‘I can’t remember’ and that she couldn’t say if he ‘ outwardly admitted that’.
She continued that she understands she told gardai Mr Brady said he killed a garda and that her memory may have been fresher when she made her statement in 2017 but she added: ‘I can’t recall if that was true or not, I can’t remember it’.
Mr Grehan then played a video of Ms Staunton giving her statement to gardai at a precinct in New York on August 29, 2017. In the video Ms Staunton could be heard saying: ‘He definitely said it himself that he murdered the cop or the detective.’ Having watched the video Ms Staunton said: ‘Now that I have seen the video I stand by my statement of what I said. He did say he killed a cop.’
Ms Fiona Murphy SC for the defence asked Ms Staunton who was it that was in her apartment. She said it was a friend that she is currently staying with. She said that she had closed down her computer herself because she wanted privacy. She added: ‘I didn’t want them in the same room.’
Ms Murphy asked the witness if when she spoke to Mr Grehan she meant that she remembers hearing what Mr Brady said or if she remembers telling the gardai about what Aaron Brady said.
She responded: ‘I remember it happening and I remember telling the guards.’
Aaron Brady (28) from New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Det Gda Adrian Donohoe who was then a member of An Garda Siochana 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.