A WITNESS in the murder trial of Mr Brendan O'Donnell said he had abducted her at gun point and had told her that if he had to kill her he had nothing to lose and it would "be quick". Ms Fiona Sampson (20) said "it sounded serious
"But I just told him I'd a lot to lose, I hadn't finished and I wasn't prepared".
Asked by the judge what she meant, the young woman said she wasn't prepared to be killed.
Ms Sampson was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Mr Brendan Patrick O'Donnell (21), a native of Co Clare but of no fixed abode, who has denied the murders of Imelda Riney, her son Liam (3) and Father Joseph Walsh in 1994.
Mr O'Donnell has also denied nine other charges including the false imprisonment of Father Walsh, the kidnapping of Ms Fiona Sampson and Mr Edward Cleary, the hijacking of two vehicles driven by those two persons and possession of a shotgun and ammunition for unlawful purposes and with intent to endanger
She said Mr O'Donnell had told her he knew the whereabouts of a missing mother and child, Imelda Riney and her son Liam. He had told her they were "safe". He said he didn't know anything about the disappearance of a priest, Father Joseph Walsh, but believed he would be connected with it.
She said that during the two hours she spent with him Mr O'Donnell had told her she wasn't acting like a hostage was supposed to and was supposed to be crying and quiet and to give him time to think.
In a calm and collected manner, Ms Sampson told Mr Justice Lavan in the Central Criminal Court of her abduction from the family home near Whitegate, Co Clare, on the early morning of May 7th, 1994.
Ms Sampson told Mr Kevin Haugh SC, prosecuting, that she was lying in bed about 7.45 a.m. planning to get up to study for an examination when she heard glass breaking. She went to the kitchen and saw a man coming through the glass of the back door. The man had a one barrelled gun. The man had tights over his face and was wearing a green jacket and dark clothing.
Ms Sampson said she turned and went back through the hall door to her mother's bedroom. She closed the door behind her but then thought "this won't do me any good" and returned to the hallway.
She was in the hallway and her younger sister Deirdre was behind her. "The man I know now to be Brendan O'Donnell was coming down the hall from the kitchen," she said.
She said she knew Mr O'Donnell as someone who had lived locally and also knew him by description. She pointed to the defendant and said he was Mr O'Donnell.
"He said Hello, Fiona and I said Hello, Brendan," she said. The man said he needed keys of a car to get out of the area and she went with him to the kitchen. He saw car keys on the counter and handed them to her.
Ms Sampson said Mr O'Donnell asked her could she drive and she said `Yes'. He told her she had to go with him and was pointing the gun at her. "I didn't know what to feel, it was just a complete shock. I felt I did not have any choice as to what I did."
She said she asked could she put on shoes and change her clothes because she was in her night dress he refused.
She said they got into the car and Mr O'Donnell sat in the passenger seat with the gun on his lap, with the barrel pointing in her direction.
"He just told me to start the car and we were leaving the area as he had to get out of the area."
They drove away from the farm and turned in the direction of Williamstown Pier, the witness said. Mr O'Donnell initially accused her of not driving fast enough and told her she could go a lot faster.
They went up a road where her father's aunt lived and she said Mr O'Donnell asked her to stop at a farmyard. He got out of the passenger seat and got into the back of the car and she closed the passenger door and kept driving.
She said the stocking which was initially on Mr O'Donnell's face when she first saw him was lifted up at stages during their journey. She believed it might have been pulled down when they later stopped at houses.
Ms Sampson said she had a number of conversations with Mr O'Donnell during the course of the journey. Some of the conversations were quite light, she agreed, and they had disagreed about whether women were good or bad drivers.
She had also asked him did he wish to hear the 8 a.m. news on the car radio. He said "yes" and she turned it on. She believed there was something on the radio about the events with which the court was now concerned.
She said other conversations were more serious. She said she had asked Mr O'Donnell about the disappearances of Imelda and Liam Riney and Father Joseph Walsh. She asked him about them on three occasions and he said on the third occasion that he knew where lmelda and Liam Riney were and they were safe.
He had said he got a lift from Ms Riney on the previous Friday week and he hadn't seen her since.
Concerning Father Walsh, she said Mr O'Donnell had said he had nothing to do with that. He said it would be bad for him because he would be connected with the disappearance of Father Walsh.
She said Mr O'Donnell said he had slept out the previous night and hadn't eaten in days.
"He said he wouldn't kill me or rape me and I could go as soon as he could get out of the area," she said. "I thought he wasn't going to do anything to me but further on in the journey he said if he had to kill me, he had nothing to lose and it would be quick."
Ms Sampson said the car journey ended after Mr O'Donnell gave her a denim jacket which was in the back seat of the car and told her to put it on but to continue driving. While she was trying to get her arm into the jacket, she partially lost control of the car which went into a spin. It spun again and went off the road.
She said Mr O'Donnell was angry and told her she had crashed the car on purpose. "I said if I'd done that, it would have been on the main road."
She said she tried to reverse the car back on to the road but was unsuccessful. Then Mr O'Donnell tried and the car went up on some rocks and got stuck.
She said Mr O'Donnell then tried to set the car on fire but could not do so. She asked him not to burn it and he told her not to worry, they would get a bigger one.
The two then left the car. She was barefoot and wearing only her night dress and Mr O'Donnell told her to put on the denim jacket and her mother's coat which was also in the car. They set off across bog and rough terrain.
She said Mr O'Donnell later told her to wear the coat with the lining outwards because it was dark green and would be less obvious than the outer purple colour of the garment.
There was a helicopter above them as they left the car, Ms Sampson said. She said Mr O'Donnell asked her height and if she had any metal on her. He told her metal would be detected by an infra red scan from the helicopter and it also had long range guns and they would not be able to differentiate between the two of them.
They saw a car at a house but Mr O'Donnell said the car was too old or wouldn't move fast enough, she said. They came to another house the owner was standing at an upstairs window with a gun. She said Mr O'Donnell said he wanted the man's car and the man said there was no way he could have the vehicle and to get off his property.
Mr O'Donnell was "not happy" with this, she said. The man then fired a shot into the air and she heard a cartridge drop. She said Mr O'Donnell told the man he'd be back "to get him and if he wasn't back, somebody else would be back".
She said that while they were walking to that house, Mr O'Donnell had told her he'd been to England and he knew where the Rineys were. He had said he didn't know of Father Walsh but that he would be connected with it.
They then headed to another house, Ms Sampson said. There was a man inside the house drinking tea. Mr O'Donnell had asked the man had he a car and the man said "no". Mr O'Donnell checked the sheds and they went out on to the road and headed in the direction of Woodford.
Ms Sampson said a navy Golf car was heading towards them and Mr O'Donnell flagged it down and ordered the driver at gunpoint to let them in. She said Mr O'Donnell forced her into the back of the car and she got in after him.
Behind the car was a Garda squad car, she said. As she was getting into the car she saw more Garda cars.
Her memory of what happened next was "vague", Ms Sampson said. She said Mr O'Donnell told the car driver to drive down the road a bit and turn at a cattle grid. He had the gun pointed between the two front seats of the car.
She noticed two people with guns rushing towards the car and as the car moved they jumped in over the ditch alongside. She said the car then moved to turn and she heard a shot being fired. She didn't really know where it came from but it seemed to come from Mr O'Donnell's gun and discharged into the roof of the car.
She remembered the barrel of a gun being shoved from left to right by an arm.
There was a lot of Garda activity, she said. Mr O'Donnell was taken from the back of the car and she was rescued by gardai. Her feet and thighs were badly scratched and there were stones and thorns in her feet.
Ms Sampson said at one point in her journey overland with Mr O'Donnell he had inspected the soles of her feet for blood. He made reference to the fact that if there were dogs out they would get the scent of blood.
Cross examined by Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, Ms Sampson said she knew Mr O'Donnell to say "hello" to and would have seen him around town.
She knew him while she was at school but could not say if she knew at that stage whether he had problems or not. She had never had a conversation with him until the morning of May 7th, 1994.
She knew that Mr O'Donnell was being sought prior to that morning, she said. When he arrived at her house, his main aim was to get out of the area as he was being pursued by a helicopter, she said. He had mentioned the helicopter to her. He wanted a vehicle to get away.
She had noted the helicopter in the background as they drove away from her house and she said Mr O'Donnell was keeping the helicopter in view and thought they had evaded it at one point.
His reaction to the helicopter was that it was there and it was after him.
Mr O'Donnell had become angry with her when the car went off the road, she said. He had told her it was her fault and that women were not very good drivers.
"We had an argument about how good and how bad women were at driving," she said. She had tried to get the car back on to the road and then he tried but he had got it completely stuck in rocks.
She agreed her conversations with Mr O'Donnell varied. She said at some stages he was trying to think what to do and she wanted to ask questions.
"He told me I wasn't acting like a hostage and I was supposed to be crying and that and I wasn't giving him time to think and he needed quiet to think."
She said he had told her at one stage to drink water from a stream because she might become dehydrated.
She said it was clear to her that Mr O'Donnell was trapped as he tried to persuade the driver of the Golf car to get out of the car because she had seen Garda cars behind the Golf. She said the gardai seized Mr O'Donnell and rescued her at about 10 a.m., roughly two hours after her ordeal began.
She said Mr O'Donnell had at one stage threatened to kill her and it sounded serious".
"But I just told him I'd a lot to lose, I hadn't finished and I wasn't prepared."
Asked by Mr Justice Lavan what she meant, the young woman said she wasn't prepared to be killed.
She agreed that it was absolutely clear that Mr O'Donnell knew her and she knew him. She said his mood changed over the time she spent with him as different things happened.
Asked by Mr MacEntee whether it was a shocking ordeal, the witness quietly replied "I was glad to be home, yes.