Son of murder accused said father told him not to come home on night of killing

The son of a Dubliner on trial, charged with murdering a man in the defendant’s home, has said his father asked him three times that day not to come home on the night of the killing.

The witness also told his father’s murder trial that when he returned home the following morning, the accused was powerwashing the ground behind their house. The court had already heard that this was the address where the deceased was shot dead, before his remains were dismembered and found in a canal.

Gary Wells gave evidence to the Central Criminal Court on Monday on the fourth day of his father's trial.

Paul Wells Senior (50) of Barnamore Park, Finglas, has admitted shooting Kenneth O'Brien dead and dismembering his body

However, he has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 33-year-old at his home in Barnamore Park on January 15th or 16th, 2016. He told gardaí that the deceased had wanted him to murder Mr O’Brien’s partner.

Gary Wells testified that he was 21 at the time and living at home in Barnamore Park with his parents and younger brother. His car had broken down so his father gave him a lift to work in Clondalkin on Friday morning, January 15th.

“That morning when I was leaving, he did tell me not to come home that night,” he testified.

The witness told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that he used to stay with his partner and child nearby on a Friday and Saturday night anyway.

He said that, as his father was dropping him at his workplace, he again told him not to come home.

“He said he had a friend coming over,” he added.

“He rang me during that morning … just to make sure I wasn’t coming home that night, to go straight to my partner’s,” he said.

He said that it was not usual for his father to ring him at work.

His mother had also left home that morning.

“My mother went down to visit my sister. She lives down in Cork. She was going down to drop down Christmas presents,” he explained. “She got a lift to the train station from my father. She was to return on the Sunday.”

His younger brother was also in Cork that weekend, he added later.

Bleach

The witness stayed with his partner and child as planned that night. He returned home the following morning to meet a friend, who was selling him a new car. His father had lent him the €1,200 for the purchase.

“I walked into the kitchen and my father was out the back,” he recalled. “He was standing just outside the decking, power-hosing the ground.”

He said that he also saw two bottles of bleach in the area.

Gary Wells stayed with his partner again that night and had gone to wash his new car when his father rang him that Sunday.

He said his father had asked him if his partner had room in her shed for some stuff. The witness said she hadn’t.

He said his father had also asked him to come home as he needed to talk to him.

“He went into the shed. He came back out with a big bag,” he said. “It had a cable tie around the top of it.”

He said that he wasn’t able to see inside, but formed the view that it contained a chainsaw.

He said his father asked him to bring it to another man’s house and that he did so.

He said there had been layers of carpet in his father’s shed and he had noticed that day that some of it was missing.

“I could see concrete,” he recalled.

He said that, later that evening, his father had asked him if he could take away some bags of rubbish from his shed. He agreed.

“He brought the bags out to my car,” he explained. “One of the bags had cardboard. There was a red stain on one of the pieces of cardboard.”

Chainsaw

Gary Wells said he had known Kenneth O’Brien and recalled his father’s reaction when it emerged he had died.

“He said he thought it was terrible what had happened and that they’d probably come to speak to him as a precaution,” he said.

He was cross examined by Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, who said there was no dispute about there being a chainsaw in the bag he had moved for his father.

The witness agreed that by the time of his brother, Paul’s, stag in Riga on January 22nd his father “was very edgy”.

Mr O’Higgins suggested that he was wrong when he said his father had told him that he had a friend coming over.

“No, it was said to me,” the witness insisted.

The trial continues on Tuesday before a jury of five women and six men. A 12th juror was discharged earlier, after she discovered that she knew somebody mentioned in evidence.