The chief prosecution witness in the trial of five Limerick men accused of murdering Mr Kieran Keane rejected the opportunity to enter the State Witness Protection Programme, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Mr Owen Treacy, a breadman and father of two, from St Mary's Park, Limerick, told the court yesterday that he felt he would be safer at home than in the programme. The court heard that Mr Treacy's wife, Donna, and their two children would also have entered the programme, had he accepted.
Mr Treacy, who has been in the witness box for four days, said: "I turned that offer down straight away, my lord. I considered it with my family and considered to stay in my own home. I felt that would be the safest."
Mr Roderick O'Hanlon SC, for the accused, Mr Anthony McCarthy, asked Mr Treacy who was in the house at Fairgreen when he and Kieran Keane arrived. "[Mr X], Mr Dundon, and Mr \ McCarthy, me and Kieran," the witness replied.
Mr Treacy said he and his uncle, Kieran Keane, were held against their will at Fairgreen before being put into a car at gunpoint and taken to a second house at Roundwood.
Counsel suggested that Mr Dundon was not present when they arrived at Fairgreen. Mr Dundon and Mr Anthony McCarthy were in the sitting-room, the witness replied.
Mr O'Hanlon further suggested that Kieran Keane was involved in "negotiations of sorts" to borrow Mr X's car for the journey to Roundwood and that "that journey was undertaken without Mr Dundon, Mr McCarthy or Mr \ being present at all."
"That is not correct", the witness replied. "These men were in that house."
Later Mr O'Hanlon put it to the witness that he knew his life was not in danger. "On that night it was life or death in that house, it was life or death on January 29th," Mr Treacy replied.
The five accused have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Keane (36), Garryowen House, Garryowen, Limerick, on January 29th last at Drombana, Bushy Island, Limerick, and to falsely imprisoning Mr Keane on the same date. They also deny the attempted murder of Mr Treacy (31), St Munchin's Street, St Mary's Park, Limerick, at Drombana and to falsely imprisoning him on the same date.
They are: Mr David Stanners (31), Pineview Gardens, Moyross; Mr Desmond Dundon (20), Hyde Road; Mr Anthony McCarthy (21), Fairgreen, Garryowen; Mr Christopher Costelloe (20), Moylish Avenue, Ballynanty Beg; and Mr James McCarthy (24), Delmege Park, Moyross.