A 30-year-old man has gone on trial in Cork charged with firing a shot through the window of a house and seriously injuring a young woman inside.
The Circuit Criminal Court was told that the woman had to undergo surgery twice to remove a bullet which was lodged in her neck.
In the early hours of Sunday 15 May, Ciara Sheehan was at the home of her boyfriend, Dylan Cunningham, at 37 Hollywood Estate, Blarney Road, in Cork.
The couple had been out together and returned to the house a few hours earlier, at around 11pm.
The windows of the porch at the front door of the house had been broken.
Sometime around 1am, Ms Sheehan and Mr Cunningham were in the front room of the house with a number of other people when, Ms Sheehan said, she heard a loud bang.
She felt her throat tightening and her face burning.
She put her hands to her neck; they were covered in blood and she realised she had been shot.
On trial is Gavin Sheehan, from the neighbouring Laurel Ridge estate.
He is charged with recklessly discharging a firearm at Hollywood Estate on 15 May, and with seriously injuring Ms Sheehan.
He is also charged with possession of a Smith and Wesson semi-automatic firearm and with possession of a single round of 9mm ammunition.
Mr Sheehan denies all four charges.
In her evidence to the jury, Ms Sheehan described how she was seriously injured in the incident and was rushed by her boyfriend to Cork University Hospital, where she remained for five or six days.
She said she underwent surgery twice to remove a bullet which was lodged in her neck.
She described an incident earlier on the evening of 14 May, the day before the shooting, at a local fast food outlet.
She said Mr Sheehan had struck her boyfriend and walked out.
Prosecuting barrister Donal O'Sullivan said at the opening that the State's case was that Mr Sheehan left his home with a gun in his hand and fired a shot through the window of 37 Hollywood Estate before returning home from a different direction.
He told the jury the evidence in this case was circumstantial, and that circumstantial evidence leads to a common sense conclusion or inference.
He said they would be shown CCTV footage from a number of different sources, including from the roof of Mr Sheehan's home.
Mr O'Sullivan said the footage would show Mr Sheehan leaving his home with a gun in his hand and heading in the direction of Hollywood Estate.
He said other footage showed Mr Sheehan climbing a wall which divided the two estates.
Shortly afterwards, Mr O'Sullivan said, he was seen walking from 37 Hollywood Estate, before CCTV from a petrol station on nearby Harbour View Road shows a man returning to Laurel Ridge.
Mr O'Sullivan said gardaí searching that area later that day found a gun, which would also be shown to the jury.
The trial, before Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin, is expected to last more than a week.
