A prosecution witness who failed to turn up to give evidence at a recent murder trial will have his case heard by the judge who presided over the murder trial.
Kallum Coleman, 23, was arrested by arrangement last week and taken into custody by gardaí on a two month committal warrant.
He appeared before Mr Justice Paul Mc Dermott, who said that "it's a question of a person not turning up for a witness summons," and the case "couldn’t be more simple".
He also said it is a matter to be dealt with by the presiding judge in the murder trial, Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford, who is currently presiding over a long-running trial in Cork, but that he would "make arrangements for her to take up the matter."
Mr Coleman had been due to testify in the trial of Dermot Phelan who was found not guilty of the murder of Keith Conlon in February 2022.
Mr Coleman, Mr Conlon and another man had been trespassing on Mr Phelan's land at Hazelgrove Farm in Tallaght, when the barrister and law lecturer shot and fatally injured Mr Conlon.
The jury agreed with Mr Phelan that he was entitled to defend himself when he came under threat on his own land.
Mr Coleman had been due to give evidence in the trial on 30 October last year but instead booked himself a one-way ticket to Spain.
Ms Justice Lankford issued a bench warrant for his arrest and the court was told when it came to light that Mr Coleman was "holing up" in a hotel in Spain, gardaí flew to Marbella and explained the consequences of the bench warrant to him.
Mr Coleman initially agreed to return to Ireland to give evidence but a garda told the trial that the witness had "a change of heart" and "legged it" whilst gardaí stopped to get refreshments en route to a Spanish airport on 5 November last.
Defence barrister Keith Spencer told the court that Mr Coleman would prefer to have the case dealt with by video link while the prosecution said its preference was for the case to be dealt with in person, even if this meant that it was to be heard in Cork.
Mr Justice McDermott adjourned the matter to 2pm next Monday in Cork for hearing before Ms Justice Lankford.
