Rival’s death ‘was not a careful plan’
A HUSBAND accused of murdering his wife’s lover denied he’d been carrying out a carefully-executed plan, a court heard.
Andrew Jones is charged with the murder of missing Carmarthenshire 55-year-old Michael O’leary. Prosecutors say the defendant lured Mr O’leary to a farm before shooting him dead and then concealing his body.
The trial is now into its third week at Swansea Crown Court.
The prosecution’s case is that Mr O’leary was shot and killed and that a forklift truck was then used to move his body.
Mr O’leary was reported missing on the evening of January 27 after he failed to return to his Nantgaredig home from work and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Cross-examined by William Hughes QC, for the prosecution, Jones admitted that after the shooting he made no attempt to give Mr O’leary medical assistance or call the emergency services.
The court heard the two men were in the yard at Cyncoed Farm, Cwmffrwd, near Carmarthen, when the incident unfolded.
Jones said in crossexamination that he and Mr O’leary were standing very close to each other – “we had banged heads together” – and he was holding the gun vertically in front of his body, with the barrel pointing up.
The defendant said Mr O’leary made a grab for the weapon, and it went off.
Jones: “The gun was under his chin when it went off. He slumped into me. I put him down on the floor.”
Mr Hughes: “Did you think ‘God! There’s been a terrible accident’?”
Jones: “Yes.”
Mr Hughes: “Why didn’t you phone the emergency services at that point?”
Jones: “I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking straight. I just panicked.”
Jones demonstrated to the jury how he was holding the gun in front of him, holding it upright by the front handle of the weapon.
The barrister asked why an experienced gun-handler would hold it in such a manner. Jones said he was just picking it up.
Jones said Mr O’leary “lunged” for the weapon and tried to pull it away from him “then it went off”.
Barrister: “Did you see any injury?”
Jones: “I saw some blood under his chin.”
Barrister: “Was breathing?” Jones: “No.” The barrister asked the defendant whether he tried to give Mr O’leary any medical assistance. Jones said no.
Jones: “I was in a hell of a panic about the whole thing. It was such a shock when it happened. I really didn’t expect it at all.”
Mr Hughes: “Your friend of 25 years had just he been injured, you say accidentally. Wouldn’t the first thing to do in those circumstances have been to call the emergency services?”
Jones: “I can see what you are saying but I didn’t do that.”
The defendant told the court he wrapped Mr O’leary’s body in plastic sheeting and put it in the back of his wife Rhiannon’s Q7 vheicle.
Jones said he knew he had to move Mr O’leary’s Nissan vehicle away from the farm because it had a tracking device on board.
Jones said one of Mr O’leary’s shoes had come off in the incident, and that gave him the idea of putting his friend’s shoes on when he drove the Nissan because “my trainers would be a different pattern” inside the vehicle.
Mr Hughes: “You were being forensically aware?”
Jones: “I put his shoes on.”
Jones said he later drove home to Bronwydd in the Q7 with Mr O’leary still wrapped in plastic in the boot.
The court heard that during the following day Jones exchanged a num
ber of text messages with friends who were concerned about Mr O’leary’s apparent disappearance, during which he went along with the pretence that Mr O’leary was missing.
Mr Hughes: “At that stage did you not think it would be appropriate to come clean?”
Jones: “I’d dug a hole for myself. I just kept going.”
The court heard about a fire Jones built at his home property, a fire allegedly used to dispose of Mr O’leary’s body.
Mr Hughes: “What were you hoping to achieve by burning Mike’s body?
Jones said: “Just hiding the facts, isn’t it.”
The barrister asked the defendant why he went into the house to get a funeral order of service before starting the fire.
Jones: “It was something I thought I should have done. He was a friend.”
Mr Hughes: “Did you think you should have let the authorities know?”
Jones: “I had gone too far.”
Mr Hughes: “You took considerable steps to lure him (Mr O’leary) there under the false premise that he was going to meet Rhiannon. When he got there you, in cold blood, shot him dead.”
Jones: “No, that’s not true.”
Mr Hughes: “You took carefully planned steps. You took his vehicle, and made it look like he had killed himself, sending text messages to his wife and son in callous fashion. I suggest you loaded his body into the back of your vehicle with a forklift truck.” Jones: “No.” Mr Hughes: “You took considerable steps to dispose of the body.”
Jones: “I did do that but it wasn’t planned.”
Mr Hughes: “You carried out a careful plan, a carefully executed plan to kill Mr O’leary with nothing in mind but to kill him.”
Jones: “No, that’s not true.”
Jones, 53, of Bronwydd Road in Carmarthen, denies murder and his trial, expected to last up to four weeks, began on September 14.
The case, which is being heard by Mrs Justice Jefford, continues.