A Co Offaly man used a homemade shotgun to shoot dead a 20-year-old man at a cider party in Birr, a prosecution lawyer alleged at a murder trial yesterday.
Opening the State's case against Mr Oliver Coleman (36), Mr John Edwards SC told the court that the accused man returned to the house armed with the gun following a verbal row with Mr Michael Rosney.
Mr Coleman, of Shannonbridge, Co Offaly, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Michael Rosney at Belmont, Co Offaly, on August 23rd, 2001.
He has also denied two further charges of possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life on the same date.
On the night in question Mr Coleman was one of five men who returned to a house in the Beechgrove estate to continue a cider party they had begun earlier in the day.
Mr Rosney arrived at the house at around 9 p.m., and some time later when the accused woke up a "verbal altercation" arose between him and Mr Rosney.
"As a result of this incident, the State alleges that Oliver Coleman left the house in a state of anger and got into his car and drove off," counsel continued. He retrieved "a homemade contraption" described as "an antique modified to working order in quite an ingenious fashion" from his mobile home and returned to the house.
The State alleges that he located Mr Rosney in the house and discharged a single shot from the firearm which entered the victim's chest. The trial continues today before Mr Justice O'Neill.