A BELFAST man shot dead a taxi driver in the city as he lay on the ground with his hands over his head, the Special Criminal Court in Dublin was told yesterday.
Tom O’Connell, prosecuting, said Gerard Mackin shot dead father of five Edward Burns (36) after hijacking his taxi near the Springhill estate in west Belfast in March 2007.
Mr Mackin (28), a native of the Whiterock area of west Belfast, with an address at Raheen Close, Tallaght, Dublin, denies the murder of Mr Burns of Prospect Park, Belfast, at Bog Meadow, Falls Road, Belfast on March 12th, 2007.
He has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Damien O’Neill, to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and to causing serious harm to Mr O’Neill on the same date.
Mr Mackin’s trial is a retrial after his conviction in 2008 for murder was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal and a retrial ordered. He was the first person convicted in a Dublin court for an alleged murder in Belfast under a rarely used cross-Border anti-terrorism law.
Mr Mackin’s conviction was quashed after the appeal court ruled that crucial prosecution evidence had not been properly proven during his original trial.
Mr Mackin opted for trial in the Republic under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976 which allows suspects to be tried in the Republic for alleged offences in Britain or Northern Ireland.
Opening the prosecution case, Mr O’Connell said Mr Mackin and Damien O’Neill were drinking in different pubs in west Belfast on the night of March 11th, 2007.
The court would hear evidence Mr Burns’s mobile phone rang continuously at about 2.15am on March 12th, and he eventually answered it and left his girlfriend’s house.
Mr Burns went to the Springhill area, where he met Mr Mackin, Mr O’Neill and another man. When he arrived Mr Mackin told him his taxi was being hijacked and he was put in the back of the car.
Mr O’Neill would tell the court Mr Mackin drove the car to an area known as the Bog Meadow, and Mr Burns was taken out by Mr Mackin, put lying on the ground and shot in the head as he lay with his hands over his head.
There would be evidence that only one shot was fired, but the bullet went through Mr Burns’s hand before entering his head.
Mr O’Neill would tell the court he got the gun off Mr Mackin and made a run for it, but Mr Mackin caught up with him, regained possession of the revolver and then shot him twice in the upper left arm and the right side of his neck.
He would say Mr Mackin left, thinking Mr O’Neill was dead, but Mr O’Neill managed to flag down a passing taxi and was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Mr O’Connell told the court Mr O’Neill’s evidence was “absolutely central’’ to the prosecution case, and Mr O’Neill has said he will not travel to Dublin to give evidence.
The court made an order requesting the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland to make arrangements for a High Court judge in Belfast to hear evidence from a number of witnesses, including Mr O’Neill, in the presence of the three judges of the Special Criminal Court.
The trial was adjourned until January next to allow the Northern Ireland authorities to make necessary arrangements.