Family spotted man with gunshot wound to head on roadside, inquest told

A family came across a man who had been shot in the head on a roadside as they made their way to see Christmas lights, an inquest has heard.

Graham McNally (35) was found injured on the roadside at 5.05pm on January 20th, 2009 at Coldwinters on the old N2 in Co Dublin.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard Mr McNally had arrived back into the country on a flight at 1.40pm that day with a female associate and they were collected by other associates.

Natasha Nugent told the coroner she was travelling in a car with her husband and two young daughters when she saw Mr McNally lying face up on the road.

“I could see the man was injured, it looked like he’d been shot,” she said. “He looked like he’d fallen backwards.”

Ms Nugent said the family stopped their car, went back to the man and phoned the emergency services. Mr McNally was take to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown but was pronounced dead at 6.05pm. A postmortem gave the cause of death as gunshot wounds to the head.

Checkpoint

Det Sgt Gavin Ross told the inquest that Mr McNally and two other males were stopped at a routine Garda checkpoint earlier. “The next contact with gardaí was Natasha Nugent’s emergency call.”

Two people were charged in relation to the murder but the charges were withdrawn before the trial began, the detective added. The case remains open.

The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing by a person or persons unknown.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane offered her sympathies to the deceased man's mother, Marie McNally, who lost another son, Alan, in a shooting in a pub in Finglas in 2012.

“We have met before in similar tragic circumstances. I offer my deepest condolences on the loss of your boys, in particular today on the loss of your son Graham,” the coroner said.