The jury in the case of Padraig Nally heard today that the Co Mayo farmer had been 'out of his mind with fear' at the time of the fatal shooting of John 'Frog' Ward.
Detective Sergeant James Carroll read to the court the detail of conversations gardaí had with Mr Nally in the days following the death of Mr Ward in October 2004.
Mr Ward, with an address at Carrowbrowne Halting Site in Galway, died after being shot twice with a single barrel shotgun and beaten with a stick.
Padraig Nally said he saw Mr Ward crouched down and pushing in the back door of his farmhouse in Funshinaugh, Cross, Co Mayo, on 14 October 2004.
Mr Nally got a single barrel shotgun from his shed and shot Mr Ward. He told gardaí there was a struggle and that he 'was terrified'.
He also told gardaí he got a stick and struck Mr Ward: 'I hammered the dust out of him,' he said.
'I hit him around his head and his face. I was enraged after seeing him come out of the house.'
Mr Nally said he went and got cartridges for the shotgun and reloaded. He followed John Ward to where he was walking on the road and he shot him again.
Giving evidence earlier today, Padraig Nally's neighbour told the jury that Mr Nally was 'a man demented with fear'.
In the witness box Mr Michael Varley said Mr Nally had called to his house on the afternoon of 14 October to call the gardaí.
He said Mr Nally told him he had been forced to 'fight for his life'.
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the court that Mr Ward died from loss of blood as a result of a shotgun wound to the trunk of his body, with a contributory cause of loss of blood as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
Mr Nally denies the charge of manslaughter. The trial continues.
