A firefighter has been acquitted of threatening to shoot a colleague in the head in a row over which radio station to listen to. Former soldier Karl Finlay (36) of Oldbawn Way, Tallaght, had pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill Derek Dowling at Dublin’s Donnybrook fire station on April 5th, 2011.
On the third day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, a jury of six men and six women took just over an hour to return their unanimous verdict.
Mr Finlay admitted saying to Mr Dowling: “How about I threaten you? How about I shoot you in the head?” but said he meant this as a hypothetical suggestion in order to try to jolt Mr Dowling into ending a row.
Mr Dowling denied that the reason he waited for 10 days before going to gardaí was because he didn’t take the threats seriously.