A law professor who denies murdering an unarmed trespasser in a fatal shooting at his farm told gardaí it would be "completely perverse" to suggest he was the aggressor and "nonsense" to describe his firing of the revolver as "an aimed shot".
In his interviews with gardaí, leading barrister Diarmuid Phelan said he believed the trespassers were going "to do whatever they wanted to do," adding: "Listen I'm not going to die up there to prove I was under threat".
In his earlier interviews, Mr Phelan told gardaí he was terrified when three men "exploded" out of bushes on his land "screaming and roaring" and began "effectively threatening" him about who had shot their dog.
The defendant told detectives that he had shouted at the men to stay back, but they "kept coming" and he believed they were "coming to fulfil the threats they had made".
Mr Phelan (56) has pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on 24 February 2022.
The accused man is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
Evidence has been given that Mr Phelan fired three shots from his Smith & Wesson revolver and it is the State's case that two of the shots were fired into the air, while the third connected with Mr Conlon.
In her opening speech, Roisin Lacey SC said the prosecution's case is that when the third shot was fired, the gun was pointed in the direction of the deceased who was shot in the back of the head when he had turned away to leave.
Giving evidence, Detective Sergeant Michael McGrath told John Byrne SC, prosecuting, that when he arrived at the scene, Mr Conlon was being attended to by paramedics. He observed a wound at the back of Mr Conlon's head and blood "pouring out".
The detective said Mr Phelan was standing alone and when he asked him what had happened, Mr Phelan replied: "I shot him".
Det Sgt McGrath said he immediately cautioned Mr Phelan and observed blood on his hands.
Mr Phelan was arrested at 1.45pm under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act for the possession of a firearm with intent to endanger others. Mr Phelan was placed in a patrol car and brought to Tallaght Garda Station.
The witness said it was agreed with a Chief Superintendent at the scene that a DNA swab would be taken from Mr Phelan at the garda station to see whether any firearm residue was on his hands.
Det Sgt McGrath said the accused had asked him in the patrol car on the way back to the garda station whether he could wash his hands. "I explained he wouldn't be able to wash his hands until the DNA swabs were done," said the officer.
The witness said Mr Phelan asked about the well-being of Mr Conlon in the patrol car and whether the injured man was a Traveller.
"I didn't answer him either way. I told him the man was being treated and paramedics were with him," said the detective.
He said Mr Phelan had not known the injured man.
In the first of four interviews which took place at 7.40pm on 23 February, Mr Phelan told gardaí that he was still "shook up" about what had happened but he would tell them as best he could.
The accused said he and his farmhands had been working along a bank by a stream and one of the agricultural workers had heard a dog.
He said they worked on for some time but when the noise could still be heard from the dog at lunchtime he decided it "couldn't be left over".
Mr Phelan said he asked one of the workers to follow him down with his sheepdog pup.
"When I got to the river I called to see if anyone was there, I called twice and there was no reply," he continued.
He said he saw a dog "apparently alone and loose" which he shot at.
He said immediately three men, some in camouflage clothing, had "exploded" from a bush where he said they had been hiding. He said they had roared but he did not know they were there until the men had "exploded out of the bushes".
"They were effectively threatening about who shot the dog...something about a claim and about getting me," he continued.
"Someone said it was not my land, which I said it was," he told officers.
The accused told detectives that when the three men "started talking about getting me, someone started taking a photo of me".
He said he had tried to get out of there "as fast as possible". He said he was "very scared", that his hands were shaking and he could not get back up the bank.
Mr Phelan said he had an impression that the men sensed his fear but that he could not locate his phone in his pocket. He asked his farmhand to call the gardaí.
The accused said he told gardaí it was urgent and he "couldn't handle it".
"These guys exploded from the undergrowth, they were screaming and roaring at us," he continued.
The accused told detectives that he went back up the bank and that he hates shooting dogs. "I only ever had to shoot one before, when a pack of seven came in from the Traveller's camp".
He said he was alerted to the "Travellers" coming towards them and he could see two men but that there had been three in the woods.
"I don't know how many there were when I shouted we had called gardaí; this had no effect, one man in camouflage was in front," he stated.
He said he did not know where the third man was and suspected he had left.
"I shouted at them to stay back, they kept coming ... I couldn't go backwards so I went forward to them to get them back," he continued.
Mr Phelan said he was "terrified" at this stage and the man had seen it.
"They came up onto the bank so I had to come forward and tried to stop them to get away at a safe distance ... They saw me and then came on again," he said.
He added: "They were coming to fulfil the threats they had made. The lead man had something towards the front of his camouflage jacket. I couldn't tell you what it was. I want to stress that I was terrified".
The accused said he reached for the revolver in his pocket and shot in the air. He could not tell gardaí whether he had discharged two or three shots.
"My memory is the arc over their heads from left to right, from what I remember is I shot left in the air towards the right over their heads in this sort of direction," said Mr Phelan.
The accused said he was "stunned when one man went down".
"I thought he was up to something, he seemed to go down slowly," Mr Phelan said. "The other man then ran".
At first, he said, he "didn't know what had happened" but then he saw the man looked "genuinely injured."
"I said, don’t attack me, I’m going to try to help you."
Mr Phelan said he immediately shouted for someone to call an ambulance.
He said the revolver had rounds of birdshot in it, adding: "It looks like I must have shot beyond the birdshot. They were shot in the air so they shouldn't have caused any harm. I didn't shoot at him. They must have run out and cycled into birdshot".
The accused went on to tell gardaí that the third "must have been a bullet, rather than a shot".
He said "the poor man was in a bad way and really needed urgent help".
The accused assumed the man must have been hit somewhere in the chest area but one of the farmhands told him the injury was to the back of the head.
Mr Phelan said he did not want to cause any more hardship to the family and he had put a product onto the injured man's head but was afraid it was caustic and might have caused him more harm.
He added: "It wasn't like I aimed at the man and shot him. I told them I was scared sh*tless".
He said he was focused "on not being beaten to a pulp" and was then focused on the injured man.
When asked about the dog, he said it had been "going towards the sheep" and "the minute I saw it I shot at it."
The interviewer told him the dog had not done anything at that stage.
Mr Phelan said it was partially obscured, he thought it was a risk to his sheep and "if there was no threat I certainly would not have shot it." He said he had a "split second" to make up his mind to shoot the dog.
He described the men as "very menacing". He said he had to get out of there as fast as possible and the impression he got was that the men were photographing him "for retaliation".
He said the last thing he wanted to do was kill a 'Traveller's dog' and disagreed with gardaí that the dog was not a threat. "I had a different view, I was really concerned about the lambs".
Asked what threats the men had made, the accused replied: "Something to the fact that there would be retribution, something about a claim and about the dog being shot".
Mr Phelan told gardaí he had to reinforce the fencing in that area five times and that they were "missing the menace" that day.
"Are you trying to tell us these people and the dog had damaged your fence every time?" asked detectives. "No, I can't tell you that," replied the accused, adding that he was not running an inquiry into it.
Mr Phelan said the men had been "roaring aggressively" at him and he had scrambled over the bank and retreated.
Gardaí put it to the accused that at no stage had he told them about any physical threat made by the men when he shot their dog. Asked whether he may have perceived one in his head, the accused replied: "they said they would get you and retribution".
In the second interview, Mr Phelan said one of the last times he had called gardaí it took three hours for a squad car to arrive "so I'm alone effectively up there".
He said he had an impression that the men sensed his fear.
At one point, the accused asked how Mr Conlon was and he was told he was critical. "Oh Jesus, no," replied the accused.
Mr Phelan called what had happened "a nightmare". "There was no other option or I would have gone down. I could see in his eyes he saw he was in".
He said Mr Conlon was "constantly closing the gap" and the accused was handicapped in how he could move with the rifle on his shoulder. He said he "obviously never contemplated" using the rifle and had put it away when the men were coming out of the undergrowth.
The accused said he had not aimed the revolver and had just shot it in the air "to get them back".
He added: "From my memory I went from left to right. I must have shot three times. Tragically the third time the birdshot must have run out. I just can't believe the man went down".
When Mr Phelan was told in the third interview that Mr Conlon had died, the accused said it was "tragic" and that he had tried to save his life. "I was beside him in the field, it's awful news".
When he was shown a recording made on Mr Conlon's phone from the woods and told there was no threat in it, the accused said the men had come for him up the field. "They were asked to stop and they wouldn't stop. My interpretation was they coming for me and they did," he said.
The garda said the dog he had shot was tied up. Mr Phelan replied: "To me he wasn’t visibly tied up."
Asked why he had his revolver with him, the accused said for vermin control "particularly at the moment".
"So vermin control for bird shell and full round for foxes; it's handy to scare foxes," said the accused. He said shot shell could be used around the yard.
Asked what his revolver had been loaded with, the accused said it was loaded with "shot shell or bird shell" and also bullets. "Tragically it looks like two birdshot and one bullet," he added.
He said the revolver would normally be loaded with three birdshot rounds for around the yard and five bullets for other purposes.
"Are you telling us you loaded the gun with a combination of different bullets or different ammunition?" asked an officer. "Yes, I told you that yesterday," Mr Phelan said.
He said birdshot could be used around the yard when a rat emerges.
"In a revolver how do you know what ammunition comes out of the barrel if there is a combination of different ammunition?" asked the gardaí. The accused said it revolves in sequence.
He said he thought the first three bullets were birdshot. "I must be wrong in that I can't be 100%". He said he had a mixture of ammunition in the barrel on purpose.
He was asked how close Mr Conlon was to him when he first fired the revolver. "I wouldn't have had time had I waited any longer for him to get any closer," he replied.
He denied that he had overreacted by shooting the dog.
Gardaí put it to the accused that Mr Conlon had done nothing to him. "That is not the reality of it, they effectively told me to get the f**k out of the wood and chased me up. I was petrified," he replied.
Mr Phelan said he had to react as he was in fear for his life and with good reason.
Asked whether he thought they were going to kill him, the accused said he believed the men were going "to beat me stupid at least".
"At that moment I believed they were going to do whatever they wanted to do," he continued. "Listen I'm not going to die up there to prove I was under threat".
He said he saw the men coming and what was in their eyes.
He denied having lost his temper and said he was "a million miles away from that mindset" and was afraid.
It was put to him that he - and not the men - was out of control by having shot their dog and that he was the aggressor. The accused replied: "That is completely perverse".
He said when Mr Conlon "went down" and he did not have a trace of animosity against him.
He said he had shot in the air, he was not thinking about each shot and it was all very fast.
"When you fired the first shot were you looking at the two men?" asked the gardaí. "The way you putting it, it was an aimed shot, that is nonsense".
Mr Conlon, from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident on 22 February and died at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.
The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford and a jury of nine men and three women.
