The brother of a Dublin man shot dead in a pub, told a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court yesterday that his brother lived in fear of a gang.
A brother of the deceased, Mr Michael Griffin, from Liffey Valley, Clondalkin, was giving evidence on the third day of the trial of Mr Shay Wildes (36), Corbally Park, Tallaght, who denies murdering Mr Declan Griffin (32), from Coolock, in the Horse and Jockey pub, Inchicore, Dublin, on April 5th, 2003.
Mr Michael Griffin, a JCB driver, said that on the day of the killing his brother asked him for €2,000 to help pay for protection from the gang, allegedly offered by Mr Wildes.
"He just didn't seem to be himself, and the phone kept ringing," said Mr Griffin. "I knew there was something going on."
Before leaving for a meeting in the Horse and Jockey pub with Mr Wildes and Mr Sandro D'Ambrosio (30), from Inchicore, who operated as a go-between, Mr Declan Griffin told his brother that he was "wary" of them.
After one call to his mobile phone, he said: "That's them again." Mr Michael Griffin lent the deceased €2,000 in new €100 notes. He was later called upon to identify his brother's body in the Dublin City Morgue.
Mr Declan Griffin arrived in the pub around 6 p.m on the Saturday evening, and sat down with a 7-UP beside the two. He handed over €5,000 to Mr Wildes; a third of the agreed fee of €15,000. It is the State's case that Mr Wildes then shot Mr Griffin.
Ms Sharon McKenna described how she spun around at the sound of the blast, letting her pint crash to the floor, and of the panic that ensued as women screamed and hurried their children out the back of the pub. Most witnesses thought the bang was a fire-cracker until other customers began streaming away from the body, still sitting upright beneath a window at the front of the pub.
Mr Patrick McCabe,who approached Mr Griffin after he had been shot, thought he was still alive and told the manager to call an ambulance.
"There was still smoke coming out of the side of his head. . . His eyes were rolling. He started gurgling," Mr McCabe said.
The trial continues on Monday.