The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Old reports helped defence trace witness
IN a key development last week the Defence, led by Brendan Grehan SC, introduced new evidence about two incidents – 1987 and 1993 – in which victim Anthony O’Mahony had allegedly shot or threatened people on his lands.
The court heard that the defence only became aware of the incidents after the trial began and that much of their information had come from contemporaneous reports in the local press.
The court was told that in the first incident, in 1987, Mr O’Mahony shot at two members of a local gun club, after they strayed onto his lands.
One of the men, John McNamara from Lisselton, came to court to give evidence about the incident. He said that he and his companion were on opposite sides of a ditch at the edge of O’Mahony’s land when he heard shotgun pellets coming through the hedge.
Mr McNamara said he heard his friend shout “I’m after being shot.”
“There was no warning or nothing,” Mr McNamara added.
A complaint was made to gardaí and Mr O’Mahony was subsequently brought before Causeway District Court where he was fined £50.
Asked by Defence Barrister Tom Rice why he had decided to come forward and correct the record thirty years later Mr McNamara said he “did not want to be here” and that he had only agreed to give evidence after receiving several calls from Mr Ferris’ solicitor Frank Buttimer.
In the second incident, in 1993, the jury heard that Mr O’Mahony had threatened to shoot two Social Welfare officials who had called to his farm in the course of an investigation. He was subsequently bound to the peace at Listowel District Court.