Man shot twice in face at close range suffering from injuries which cannot be improved, court told

The victim of an attempted murder has said he cannot contemplate how someone planned to end his life by shooting him twice in the head, leaving him with a mouth full of shattered teeth and a hole in his throat, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Andrew O’Brien said in his victim impact statement that he was shot in the face at close range while sitting in his car and that all of his teeth on the left side of his mouth were shattered and broken. He said he has a large burn scar on his face and a hole remains down the side of his throat. “My speech is also affected as a result of my teeth and bone loss. I am forced to eat with the right side of my teeth all the time,” he said.

The court heard that the gunman, Sam Archbold (36), was a passenger in Mr O’Brien’s car and had arranged to stop off under the pretext of collecting money to pay down a debt.

Archbold, with an address at Commons Road, Clondalkin in Dublin 22 pleaded guilty earlier this year to the attempted murder of Mr O’Brien at Cherrywood Grove, Clondalkin in Dublin 22 on April 8th, 2022. Mr O’Brien was hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries after suffering two gunshots to the face. Defence counsel Seamus Clarke SC informed the court today that his client was arraigned on count one and that all other counts were taken into consideration.

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The court heard that the victim had allowed his medical report to be released to gardaí but had not provided a statement.

At today’s sentence hearing, Inspector Dara Kenny detailed the background of the event, telling John Fitzgerald SC, prosecuting, that gardaí were able to establish from CCTV footage and witnesses that Mr O’Brien had driven a Volkswagen Golf to a park beside Cherrywood Grove at 4.45pm on April 8th. While the Volkswagen Golf was parked, a man identified as Archbold got out of the passenger seat of the vehicle and walked over to another car.

Archbold was later seen moving at greater pace towards the Golf and shooting Mr O’Brien in the face through the open passenger side window.

Mr O’Brien got out of his car and made his way to a nearby house where he got assistance. Counsel said that witnesses saw a man identified as Archbold dressed in dark clothing leaving the scene and said they heard two shots, described as two seconds apart. The defendant was seen running from the scene into the park and through a river after taking Mr O’Brien’s phone with him and his own phone, said counsel.

The victim’s phone was never recovered by gardaí but the following day a Nokia phone was handed into Clondalkin Garda station, which a witness had found in the park.

“A number of people had rang that phone asking to speak to a ‘Sam’. That phone was analysed and it was found that Archbold had phoned Mr O’Brien on four occasions,” said the barrister. The following day gardaí received confidential information naming Sam Archbold.

Mr Fitzgerald said that Archbold’s house was searched on the night of April 9th but he was not there. Wet clothing was found that was consistent with the defendant having run through the river and firearms residue was found on them, he said. Gardaí conducted a search near the park where Archbold had been seen loitering and two days later a lunch box containing a revolver and ammunition was found.

The revolver was a British Bulldog revolver with six cartridges; four were full and two had been discharged. The ammunition was inside a ziplock bag contained within the lunch box. The defendant’s fingerprints were found on the lunch box and ammunition. Archbold was arrested on Grafton Street on the afternoon of April 11th, three days after the shooting. He was arrested on 13 occasions and for the first nine interviews he mostly exercised his right to silence. In his first interview, Archbold told gardaí: “I’ve never held a gun, I’ve never fired one.”

In his tenth interview, Archbold, who was presented with DNA, CCTV and mobile phone evidence, told gardaí there were a few things he would like to clear up. He added: “That’s me in the park, me who fired the shot, I went to a field and changed my clothes. I 100 per cent didn’t intend to kill Andy, I never fired a gun before, it was supposed to be a warning.”

The defendant later told gardaí that he had a drug problem, had built up a €2,000 debt and that someone was going to give him a loan but there had been issues getting it. He said his “ma’s windows” had been smashed, some third party had given him a gun and repeated that he didn’t want to hit the victim in the face. “He goes on to say in relation to the second shot that this was also accidental,” said the Inspector.

Mr O’Brien’s father described the psychological impact on his son in a report read to the court and said Andrew was extremely depressed when he was discharged from St James’s Hospital. “He is attending the GP, he suffers on a regular basis from flashbacks and is constantly thinking how someone tried to take his life,” he said.

His father said Andrew is not the young man he was before this event, that he lacks self confidence, that his facial features are completely changed and that he cannot be further operated on and that his condition cannot be improved.