The son of a man who is on trial for the murder of Kenneth O'Brien, whose dismembered body was found in a canal, has told the Central Criminal Court that his father told him not to come home on the day Mr O'Brien was killed.
Gary Wells was giving evidence on the fourth day of the trial of 51-year-old Paul Wells Snr from Barnamore Park, Finglas, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 33-year-old Kenneth O'Brien, in January 2016.
Paul Wells Snr admits shooting Mr O'Brien and disposing of his body. He claims he shot him during an argument because Mr O'Brien had asked him to kill his partner, which he was unwilling to do.
Gary Wells told the court his father told him twice on 15 January not to come home that night and later phoned him while he was in work to ensure he would not be home.
Mr Wells said it was very unusual for his father to phone him at work and that the reason his father had given was that he was "having a friend over".
Mr Wells said he stayed with his girlfriend that night and when he returned home the following morning his father was power washing the patio.
He said the following day, Sunday 16 January, his father rang him to say he was outside his girlfriend's house. He said this was also unusual and when they spoke his father said he needed to speak to him at home.
He had also asked if his girlfriend had any room in her shed.
When he went home his father asked him to take a bag to his brother, Paul junior who lived in Celbridge.
He said he handed him a plastic bag, which was cable tied at the top and he could see from the shape there was a chainsaw inside.
He later brought the chainsaw to his brother.
His father had also asked him to dump shopping bags with rubbish, which he did on Monday the 17th. He said he noticed one of the bags of rubbish had cardboard with red stains on it.
He said the previous week his father had been asking him to get plastic in work because there was a leak in their shed. Later that week, he also asked him to bring an envelope of cash to his brother Paul, which he did.
Gary Wells said when it was discovered that the body found in the canal was Mr O'Brien's his father had remarked to him that it "was terrible what happened to him". He said Paul Wells Snr also said gardaí would probably want to talk to him (Mr Wells Snr) "as a precaution".
The jury was told that as it became clear that gardaí were focusing on associates of Mr O'Brien it was widely discussed in his family that they would be moving closer to his father.
He said his father was "very on edge" around that time. The process was preempted and accelerated when Paul Wells junior "self-reported" to the gardaí. The court was told that Paul Wells junior faces a charge in relation to what happened to the chainsaw.
During cross-examination by defence counsel, Gary Wells rejected a suggestion from Michael O'Higgins that he was mistaken when he said his father had said he was having a friend over.
Mr O'Higgins said Gary Wells had given different accounts of when this was supposed to have been said and he was therefore unreliable. Gary Wells disagreed.
He agreed that it would be his normal routine to stay in his girlfriend's house on a Friday night but said he would normally go home first to change.
He rejected a suggestion from Mr O'Higgins that his father was not giving him an order but had simply asked was he alright to stay in his girlfriend's house.
"It's more the tone that my father speaks," he said, adding "it's the way he speaks to people, it's an aggressive tone".
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and an 11-member jury.
One juror was excused from duty today after she told the judge she previously worked with a man who was a potential witness in the case.
