A jury will resume considering its verdict on Friday in the trial of law professor Diarmuid Phelan who denies the murder of a trespasser on his Co Dublin farm.
Mr Phelan (56), a senior counsel and law professor at Trinity College, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Keith Conlon (36) at Hazlegrove farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght.
A father of four, Mr Conlon was pronounced brain dead at Tallaght hospital on February 24th, 2022 two days after he was shot at the farm.
The trial began at the Central Criminal Court on October 16th before Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and the jury of nine men and three women. It is now in its tenth week.
The judge has told them the three possible verdicts open to them are not guilty; guilty of murder; and not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
The judge has given each juror a ‘route to verdict’ (RTV) written document containing questions to assist them in their deliberations. The document, she said, is only a suggested route.
The jury was sent out just after 10.30am on Tuesday to begin considering its verdict.
At 12.50pm, the judge recharged the jury on some aspects of the evidence.
In relation to the jury having raised at an earlier stage of the trial that someone in court was recording on their phone, the judge said that was correct but “nothing to worry about”. The phone had been provided to gardai who examined it, it had been used to record part of a Garda’s evidence, that was an audio recording only, there was no recording of any other evidence and no video recording of the jury.
The jury took 30 minutes for a lunch break and continued their deliberations until they were sent home just before 4pm, at their request, involving total deliberations of about four hours.
Because of issues with juror availability, they will not return to court until Friday afternoon to resume considering their verdict.
During the trial, the jury heard Mr Conlon and two other men, Kallum Coleman and Robin Duggan, were using a lurcher dog and a Jack Russell terrier to hunt down badgers and/or foxes, when trespassing on Mr Phelan’s farm on February 22nd 2022.
After Mr Phelan, who the jury was told was concerned about lambing ewes, shot the lurcher, there were heated exchanges with the trespassers and two of them, Mr Conlon and Mr Coleman, followed him up a field.
The prosecution case is two shots were fired into the air by Mr Phelan from his Smith & Wesson revolver and a third penetrated the body of Mr Conlon.
The prosecution say, when the third shot was fired, Mr Conlon was shot in the back of the head as he turned away and Mr Phelan had the necessary intent - to kill or cause serious injury - for murder.
The defence case is Mr Phelan was entitled to discharge the firearm as he did, it was a legitimate act of self-defence, the firearm was discharged without intent to hit Mr Conlon and the entry of the bullet into his body was an accident.
In the detailed RTV document, it is suggested the jury consider four questions and apply a standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt - the onus of proof being on the prosecution - in answering those.
The questions address legal issues including issues relating to whether or not Mr Phelan had the necessary intent, to kill or cause serious injury, for murder; whether or not he honestly believed he had to use force to protect himself from assault or injury; and whether or not the force used was excessive.
Depending on the answers to the questions, the RTV document outlines how particular answers can lead to a verdict of not guilty; guilty of murder; or not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
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