MR Brendan O'Donnell described meeting Imelda Riney for the first time in spring 1994. He had been released on licence from prison in England after being arrested on charges of snatching a handbag in Wolverhampton. He returned to Co Clare where he stayed with his grandmother for a week before going to Whitegate, Co Clare, where he planned to stay in a house he believed to be empty.
When he got to the house a woman walked out. She spoke with a Dublin accent, he said. It was Imelda Riney: he recognised her from having met her in Scarriff, Co Clare, in 1992 at a social welfare centre. She had admired his Aran jumper and they discussed a house which she was then renting and she had asked him did he know of any old houses for sale. He had told her he was staying in a caravan in a wood, he said.
When he saw her again in April 1994, he did not immediately recognise her but then did and told her who he was. She remembered him and asked him into the house for a cup of tea. Her son Liam was there.
Mr O'Donnell said he did not have a gun. He said he told Ms Riney he had been in prison in England and was on the run. She told him she was very friendly with his granduncle, and would go and visit him. He said she told him he could come to the house for food after 11 a.m. any day when there was no one there except herself and Liam.
He went back to Ms Riney's house two days later. They went to see his granduncle who gave him dinner and money. He said he had then stayed with his grandmother for a few days and stole a car and drove to Limerick where he bought a tent. He pitched the tent in Cregg Wood. He said he then went down to see Imelda Riney and asked would she bring him food in the tent and not tell anyone he was there. She agreed and brought him food every day, he said.
The trial is continuing before Mr Justice Lavan and the jury.